Ja. Calduch-giner et al., Fish growth hormone receptor: Molecular characterization of two membrane-anchored forms, ENDOCRINOL, 142(7), 2001, pp. 3269-3273
A RT-PCR approach was used to clone and sequence the full-length growth hor
mone receptor (GHR) of a teleost fish, the turbot (Scophthalmus maximus). T
otal liver RNA was amplified by RT-PCR with degenerate primers designed in
extracellular and cytoplasmic regions, and a single DNA fragment of 1100 bp
was obtained. The entire coding region was obtained by 5' and 3' RACE assa
ys, and comprises an open-reading frame of 633 amino acids. This sequence s
hows the characteristic motifs of the class I cytokine receptor superfamily
, and its amino acid identity with mammalian, avian, reptilian and amphibia
n GHRs is 32-36%. The 3' RACE also revealed the occurrence of an alternate
messenger encoding a membrane-anchored truncated receptor, which could faci
litate the production of GH-binding protein in fish species. This report re
presents the first data on fish GHR sequence, and it provides evidence for
the conservation of this receptor throughout vertebrate evolution.