Beta tubulin gene of the parasitic protozoan Leishmania mexicana

Dunne Fong, Benjamin Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

A genomic DNA library was generated with Sau3A cut DNA derived from promastigotes of Leishmania mexicana amazonensis and the lambda vector EMBL3. The library was screened for β tubulin clones using 32P-labeled heterologous probe of chicken β tubulin cDNA. From the various genomic clones the one designated 23.1, which gave the simplest hybridization banding pattern, was further characterized. The leishmanial insert DNA was subcloned into plasmid vectors and the resulting clones were designated as T11, T28 and T50. Using these clones leishmanial β tubulin coding region was sequenced by the dideoxy method. The result shows that the β tubulin has 445 amino acids, a carboxyl terminal tyrosine, and no intron. Leishmanial β tubulin has 93% amino acid sequence similarity with that of trypanosome and 82% with that of man; and there is a strong bias in codon usage for codons possessing guanine or cytosine in the third base.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)97-106
Number of pages10
JournalMolecular and Biochemical Parasitology
Volume31
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1988

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Parasitology
  • Molecular Biology

Keywords

  • Beta tubulin gene
  • Genomic library
  • Leishmania mexicana
  • Tubulin

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