A. Rigaa et al., PARTIAL CDNA SEQUENCE OF A METALLOTHIONEIN-LIKE PROTEIN WITH NEW FEATURES FROM THE BIVALVE MACOMA-BALTHICA, Journal of marine biotechnology, 6(2), 1998, pp. 83-85
The marine bivalve Macoma balthica was experimentally treated with sub
lethal doses of Cd2+. The mantel RNA was reverse-transcribed and PCR-a
mplified using degenerate primers. RT-PCR amplification revealed a spe
cific band of 300 bp. Amino acid composition deduced from this sequenc
e fell into the specific feature mainly concerning a high level of cys
teine in metallothionein. However, due to a different dispersion of cy
steine residues along the sequence, no significant homology could be n
oted from the comparison of the amino acid sequence with those of know
n metallothioneins. Consequently, this M. balthica protein might belon
g to class II metallothioneins.