MOLECULAR-CLONING OF FELINE FAS ANTIGEN AND FAS LIGAND CDNAS

The Fas antigen (FasA) and Fas ligand (FasL) are key molecules which m ediate apoptosis. For investigation of apoptosis in cats, we isolated molecular clones of feline FasA and Fast cDNAs by using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method to amplify cDNAs from feline lymphoma cel l lines. These feline FasA and Fast clones contained complete open rea ding frames encoding 314 and 280 amino acids, respectively. These feli ne FasA and Fast cDNA clones had structures characteristic of the tumo r necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family and TNF family, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequence of feline FasA and feline Fast, respec tively showed 45.0%-60.0% and 75.0%-90.0% similarity with their human, mouse and bovine counterparts. These data will be helpful for investi gating the role of the FasA and Fast system in apoptosis and for study ing the various diseases associated with the deregulation of apoptosis in cats. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.