V. Lund et Ja. Olafsen, COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF PENTRAXIN-LIKE PROTEINS IN DIFFERENT FISH SPECIES, Developmental and comparative immunology, 22(2), 1998, pp. 185-194
Pentraxins are a family of pentameric serum proteins that have been co
nserved in evolution and share sequence homology, similar subunit asse
mbly and the capacity for calcium-dependent ligand binding. The classi
cal pentraxins are human C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid P
component (SAP), The sequence homology and gene organization indicate
that they arose from a gene duplication of an ancestral pentraxin gene
, They are usually isolated based on their affinity for phosphorylchol
ine and agarose, respectively. We have used this method for isolation
of pentraxin-like proteins from normal serum of Atlantic salmon (Salmo
salar), common wolffish (Anarhichas lupus), cod (Gadus morhua) and ha
libut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus), Although pentraxin structures have
not been verified, the isolated proteins all appear to be pentraxin-li
ke based on their binding specificity, molecular weight of subunits, c
ross-reactivity with antibodies to human pentraxins and N-terminal ami
no acid sequences, However, with the described method only one pentrax
in-like protein was detected in each of the fish species. (C) 1998 Els
evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.