CLONING OF MULTIPLE FORMS OF GOLDFISH VIMENTIN - DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION IN CNS

In efforts to determine the primary structure of intermediate filament proteins in the goldfish visual pathway, we isolated clones from a re tinal lambda gt11 cDNA expression library that represent goldfish vime ntin. We show that there are at least two forms of goldfish vimentin, designated as vimentin alpha and vimentin beta. RNase protection assay s indicate that vimentin alpha mRNA is expressed in low amounts in ret ina, optic nerve, and brain and in higher amounts in spinal cord. In c ontrast, vimentin beta mRNA is expressed in low amounts in retina, opt ic nerve, brain, and spinal cord and in very high amounts in eye lens. Immunohistochemical studies show that in the optic nerve, vimentin al pha is mainly restricted to blood vessels, meninges, and septa. Light staining is observed with this antibody in an astrocytic glial pattern throughout the optic nerve. Two-dimensional gel analysis shows that a ll of these goldfish vimentins are low abundant components of optic ne rve cytoskeletal preparations.