Cloning of canine cDNA encoding tektin

Tektins are a group of proteins that form filamentous polymers in the walls of ciliary microtubules. The cloning of canine cDNA encoding tektin, was c arried out and identified from the testis of beagle dog. Canine tektin cDNA is 1,523 bp in length, has an open reading frame of 1281 bp nucleotides en coding a protein of 426 deduced amino acids. The predicted amino acid seque nce has 77% and 33-50% of homology with the murine tektin and the sea urchi n tektins. The amino acid sequence RPNVELCRD and four cysteine residues wer e conserved in the dog, mouse and sea urchin, suggesting the functional sig nificance of this protein domain and the animo acid residues in the tektin proteins.