THE TYPE-II PEROXIREDOXIN GENE FAMILY OF THE MOUSE - MOLECULAR-STRUCTURE, EXPRESSION AND EVOLUTION

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are a newly defined family of antioxidant protei ns that have been implicated, via their antioxidant activity, in a num ber of cellular functions, including cell proliferation and differenti ation, protection of other proteins from oxidative damage, and intrace llular signaling. We isolated genomic DNA sequences of the type II Pix (PI x II) gene from the mouse and analyzed their molecular genetic ch aracteristics. In the mouse, the Prx II is found to form a small multi gene family with three members. One of them, the Prx II-I gene, is act ively transcribed in a variety of adult tissues as well as in the deve loping embryos to produce a 1.1-kb mRNA. The Prx II-1 gene consists of six exons and five introns, and the whole transcription unit occupies about 4.5 kb in the mouse genome. The other two genes, Prx II-2 and P rx II-3, are encoded by single exons, and show 97.5 and 87% of nucleot ide sequence homology with the Prx II-I gene, respectively. Structural features of these genes and the results of RT-PCR analysis on RNAs fr om various tissue sources indicate that the Prx II-2 and Prx II-3 gene s could be pseudogenes derived from the Prx II-1 gene by a mechanism i nvolving retrotransposition. These results strongly suggest that only the Prx III gene might be relevant for studying the function of the Pr x II gene in the murine system. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.