1: Exp Mol Med. 2003 Oct 31;35(5):393-402. 

Genomic organization and expression of parkin in Drosophila melanogaster.

Bae YJ, Park KS, Kang SJ.

Department of Biological Science, College of Natural Science, Ewha Womans
University, Seoul 120-750, Korea.

We report here the isolation, characterization on genomic structure and
expression of the D. melanogaster homolog of human parkin. The 2,122 bp parkin
gene sequence contains six exons that form a 1,449 bp transcript encoding a
protein of 482 amino acids. 151 bp of 5' and 112 bp of 3' untranslated regions
were identified by a combination of 5'-RACE/primer extension and 3'-RACE,
respectively. The 5' UTR contains three transcription initiation sites. Neither
a classical TATA nor a CAAT box was found in the putative promoter sequence.
However, binding sites for AhR-Arnt, AP4, NF1 and GATA transcription factors
were identified. Transient transfection analysis of the 5' UTR confirmed its
promoter activity in HEK 293 cells and SH-SY5Y neuronal cells using a dual
luciferase reporting system. The amino acid sequence of D. melanogaster Parkin
exhibits 42%, 43% and 43% identity to that of human, mouse and rat,
respectively, representing a 54 kDa protein band via western blot analysis. It
shows a high degree of conservation in the Ubiquitin-like domain at the
N-terminus (34%), the In-Between RING finger domains (IBR, 65-69%), and the RING
finger domains at the C-terminus (56-57%). The expression pattern of D.
melanogaster parkin varies during the developmental stages, with the highest
expression in the adult stage as measured by competitive RT-PCR. From
immunostainings of the embryo, D. melanogaster parkin was expressed slightly
higher in the central nervous system (brain and nerve cord) during the late
embryonic stage.

PMID: 14646593 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


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