PRIMARY STRUCTURE OF BOVINE AORTA BIGLYCAN CORE PROTEIN DEDUCED FROM CLONED CDNA

Two overlapping cDNA clones for core protein of a biglycan of bovine a orta were isolated from a pSPORT bovine aorta tissue cDNA library. The 2043-bp cDNA contains a 114-bp 5' untranslated region, a 1224-bp open reading frame and a 705-bp 3' untranslated region. The encoded core p reproprotein contains a prepeptide (residues no. -37 to -19) and a pro peptide (residues no. -18 to -1), with 369 amino acid residues corresp onding to a molecular mass of 41.6 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequenc e revealed a striking homology to rat vascular smooth muscle cell, hum an bone and bovine articular cartilage biglycans from cell culture.