Cloning and expression analysis MBLL cDNA

The mbl(muscleblind) gene of Drosophila encodes a nuclear protein which con tains two Cys(3)His motifs. The mutation of mbl gene will disturb the diffe rentiation of all the Drosophila's photoreceptors. Primers have been design ed according to human EST086139, which is highly homologous to mbl gene. Hu man fetal brain cDNA library has been screened and a novel cDNA clone has b een obtained, The 2595 bp cDNA, designated MBLL (muscleblind-like), contain s an open reading frame which encodes 255 amino acids and has 4 Cys(3)His m otifs (GenBank Ace. AF061261). The amino acids sequence shares high homolog y to Drosophila's mbl, The Northern blot and RNA dot blot hybridization of 43 human adult tissues and 7 metal tissues show that MBLL is a widely expre ssed gene, but the expression amounts differ in these tissues.