Mu. Patwary et al., ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A CDNA-ENCODING AN ACTIN GENE FROM SEA SCALLOP (PLACOPECTEN-MAGELLANICUS), Journal of shellfish research, 15(2), 1996, pp. 265-270
Two full-length complementary DNAs (cDNA) were isolated from a sea sca
llop adductor muscle-specific cDNA library and sequenced completely. B
oth clones encode the same open reading frame of 376 amino acid residu
es. The amino acid sequence is highly homologous to other invertebrate
actin sequences, and as in other invertebrates, the N-terminal sequen
ces are much more similar to the nonmuscle actin of higher vertebrates
than to their muscle actin. Results suggest that this is the primary
actin gene expressed in adductor muscle. The size of the actin gene fa
mily in this species is approximately 12-15, determined through Southe
rn hybridization. An actin gene probe may also be useful as a genetic
marker because it reveals polymorphisms in sea scallop in at least thr
ee loci. Strong signals were obtained when DNA digests from several sh
ellfish and fish were probed with an actin coding region probe, indica
ting that this clone will be useful in genetic studies of other fish a
nd shellfish species.