CDNA CLONING OF PORCINE INTERLEUKIN-2 RECEPTOR-ALPHA GENE

Porcine interleukin-2 receptor-alpha subunit (IL-2R alpha) cDNA was cl oned from the cDNA library of Con A-stimulated PBMC. The coding sequen ce of porcine IL-2R alpha, including the signal peptide sequence, is 8 13 b.p. in length. The identities of the sequence when it was compared with ovine, murine, feline and human sequences were 72.2, 62.4, 69.8 and 68.9% at nucleotide level and 58.9, 44.6, 54.6 and 55.6% at amino acid level, respectively. Then, the coding sequence of porcine IL-2R a lpha was subcloned into the COS expression vector, pcDNA3.1/Zeo(+), an d transfected into COS-7 cells. The expressed protein was specifically reactive to the mAb, 231-3B2, which seemed to be specific for porcine IL-2R alpha. This result reciprocally confirmed that the mAb, 231-3B2 , recognizes porcine IL-2R alpha on a molecular basis.