Structures of mouse Rep-8 cDNA and genomic clones

A mouse homologue of the human Rep-8 gene was cloned by PCR methods using d egenerate oligonucleotide primers corresponding to highly conserved regions between human and mouse genes, and by the Marathon-Ready cDNA amplificatio n method. The full-length mouse Rep-8 contains 1422 nucleotides and codes f or a protein of 277 amino acids with a calculated mel. wt, of 31,519. The o verall amino acid sequence homology between mouse and human Rep-8 proteins was 73%, and the overall nucleic acid sequence similarity was 65%. The pred icted amino acid sequence of mouse Rep-8 has leucine zipper-like motifs in the N-terminal region, similar to the human Rep-8 protein. Rep-8 exists as a single-copy gene and is expressed in both the early and late embryonic st ages of mouse development, suggesting that the Rep-8 gene product has an im portant role in embryogenesis. The genomic structure of the mouse Rep-8 gen e was characterized extensively so that a gene targeting strategy could be used to develop an understanding of the biological function(s) of this inte resting gene and its product. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.