ISOLATION OF TRANSFORMING GROWTH-FACTOR-BETA-2 CDNA FROM A FISH, CYPRINUS-CARPIO BY RT-PCR

Transforming Growth Factors-beta (TGF-beta s) have been described in m any vertebrate species of amphibians, aves and mammals. In this report we demonstrate the presence of TGF-beta 2 in pisces. TGF-beta 2 has b een cloned from a fish, Cyrinus carpio, by RT-PCR using degenerate oli gonucleotide primers. Sequence analysis of the amplified product and a lignment of the deduced amino acid sequence with the human TGF-beta 2 amino acid sequence revealed 81% and 93% identity in the precursor and the mature regions, respectively. The northern blot analysis of fish heart RNA shows a major messenger RNA species of about 8.0 kb and two messages of very low abundance of about 5.0 kb and 4.0 kb. The identif ication of TGF-beta 2 isoform in Pisces and it's high degree of homolo gy with the mammalian isoform suggests that among all TGF-beta isoform s, TGF-beta 2 is the most conserved during evolution. (C) 1997 Elsevie r Science B.V.