IDENTIFICATION OF A CHICKEN RAD52 HOMOLOG SUGGESTS CONSERVATION OF THE RAD52 RECOMBINATION PATHWAY THROUGHOUT THE EVOLUTION OF HIGHER EUKARYOTES

Degenerate oligonucleotides encoding conserved regions of the Rad52 pr otein of S.cerevisiae and its homologue, the Rad22 protein of S.pombe, were used to clone a chicken RAD52 counterpart by the polymerase chai n reaction. Sequence comparison of the chicken and yeast proteins reve als a strongly conserved region between positions 40 and 178 of the ch icken Rad52 sequence indicating that this part of the protein is under strong evolutionary pressure. The first 39 amino acids and the 3' end of the chicken Rad52 homologue does not share significant similarity with the yeast proteins. High abundance of the mRNA in testis makes it likely that the chicken Rad52 protein plays a role in meiotic recombi nation.