Isolation of transforming growth factor-beta2 cDNA from a fish, Cyprinus carpio by RT-PCR.

ABSTRACT

Transforming Growth Factors-beta (TGF-betas) have been described in many vertebrate species of amphibians, aves and mammals. In this report we demonstrate the presence of TGF-beta2 in pisces. TGF-beta2 has been cloned from a fish, Cyprinus carpio, by RT-PCR using degenerate oligonucleotide primers. Sequence analysis of the amplified product and alignment of the deduced amino acid sequence with the human TGF-beta2 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 identification of TGF-beta2 isoform in Pisces and it's high degree of homology with the mammalian isoform suggests that among all TGF-beta isoforms, TGF-beta2 is the most conserved during evolution.