Cloning and Determination of Tissue Specific Expression Pattern of Astacus Leptodactylus Na+ Ca 2+ Exchanger Gene
Özet
Cytosolic Ca2+ plays an essential role in various cellular functions. Changes in cytosolic Ca2+
concentration is important for different cellular activities like muscle contraction and
neurotransmitter release. A set of channels and exchangers are responsible for
maintenance of resting calcium concentration and the generation of the calcium
transient. Na+/Ca2+ exchanger can move Ca2+ in either direction depending on net
electrochemical driving force acting on the exchanger. Structure and function of
Na+/Ca2+ exchanger is conserved within the animal kingdom. In the crayfish there are
some recent functional studies indicating the presence of Na+/Ca2+ exchanger.
However, there is no report focusing onto genetic and molecular properties of the
crayfish exchanger yet. To reveal properties of the crayfish Na+/Ca2+ exchanger gene,
various molecular techniques have been employed by considering the homology
observed among closely related species. As a result, the complete coding sequence
of the putative crayfish Na+/Ca2+ exchanger gene has been revealed. Corresponding
amino acid sequence has been found to be 58 – 65 % similar to known Na+/Ca2+
exchangers, sharing characteristics of the exchanger protein family. Tissue specific
expression pattern of crayfish Na+/Ca2+ exchanger gene indicates that exchanger is
expressed in excitable or biologically active tissues like ganglia, muscle and antennal
gland while its expression is almost absent in gill which passively filters the
neighboring fluid. Future efforts will be dedicated to define structure-function
relationship of the discovered gene.
