| Abstrakt: |
Degenerate primers were designed to isolate new homologs of Nox family genes in rat organs and sea urchin eggs. The primers were capable of amplifying Nox1, Nox2, Nox3, Nox4, Duox1 and Duox2 but not Nox5, and failed to isolate novel homologs in rat. However, a novel homolog (named as Nox-U1) was identified in sea urchin eggs. In the most conserved region (amino acid 336-417 in human Nox2) Nox-U1 has the highest identity with Nox2, which appears to be abundant in mouse oocytes. However, phylogenetic analysis of the entire sequence has revealed that Nox-U1 is closer to Nox4 or Nox5 than Nox2 or Nox3. Histidine residues assumed to be responsible for heme ligation, motifs for FAD- and NADPH-binding, and two asparagine-linked glycosylation sites are conserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
