Identification of beta subunit of the rhesus monkey chorionic gonadotropin(rmCG)

Chorionic gonadotropin (CG) is a placental derived hormone that plays a cru cial role in successful implantation and establishment of early pregnancy i n the primates. The rhesus monkey was chosen as a model to understand the f easibility of developing human DNA immuno-contraceptive. The coding region of rhesus monkey CG beta -subunit (rmCG beta) was isolated by the TDRT-PCR method. The nucleotide sequence including the leader peptide was 499 nucleo tide long and encoded 166 amino acids. In comparing with the previous known primates CG beta -subunits, the rmCG beta was the highest degree of homolo gy with baboon CG beta -subunit at the deduced amino acid sequence (94%), 7 9.5% homology with human CG beta -subunit and 70.4% homology with marmoset monkey CG beta -subunit. The eukaryotic expression vector pCMV4-rmCG beta i nserted full-coding cDNA sequence of rmCG beta was constructed, and the exp ression of rmCG beta -subunit in HeLa cells transient expressing system in vitro and BALB/c mice in vivo was determined. The results demonstrated that the recombinant PCMV4-rmCG beta eukaryotic expression vector could express rmCG beta -subunit in vitro and in vivo.