ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A CDNA-ENCODING A CHICKEN ACTIN-LIKE PROTEIN

We report the isolation and characterization of a chicken cDNA which p utatively encodes an actin-like protein (chACTL). This 394-amino-acid (aa) polypeptide shares sequence homology (81, 70 and 67% identical aa , respectively) with three actin-related proteins (ARP) described for Drosophila melanogaster (ARP14D), Caenorhabditis elegans (ACTL) and Sa ccharomyces cerevisiae (ACT2). At least six chACTL transcripts were de tected in different tissues during chick embryogenesis. Sequence analy sis suggests that at least three groups of ARP have been evolutionaril y conserved.