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Cloning and analysis of
the HMG domains of ten Sox genes from Bombina
maxima (Amphibia: Anura)
Jingjing Wang, Ning Wang and
Liu-wang Nie*
The
Provincial Key Lab. of the Conservation and Exploitation
Research of Biological Resources in Anhui, College of Life
Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000,
China.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
lwnie@mail.ahnu.edu.cn
Accepted
5 March, 2009 |
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Sox
is a large gene family which encodes Sry-related
transcription factors and contains a HMG box that is
responsible for the sequence-specific DNA binding. In this
paper, we obtained ten clones representing HMG
box-containing Sox genes (BmSox1a, BmSox1b,
BmSox3a, BmSox3b, BmSox3c, BmSox11a,
BmSox11b, BmSox11c, BmSox14, BmSox33)
from male and female Bombina maxima respectively and
no sexual differences were observed,
using
highly degenerate primers designed from the conservative
motif (HMG-box) of the human SRY gene. We want to reveal the gene duplication process and
gene trees for the Sox genes in this toad.
The
sequences analysis indicated that
Sox1, Sox3
and Sox11 gene may be duplicated. The cloned
Sox genes shared high sequence identity to the
homologous human SOX genes. Based on the amino acid
sequence similarities, the phylogenetic analysis was carried
out and the results suggested that nine of ten HMG
domain-encoding sequences are members of the SoxB and
SoxC groups. BmSox33 and its homologous gene
xSox33(Xenopus laevis) were found only in
Discoglossidae and Xenopodidae in amphibian, but Sox33
has not been found in other vertebrates up to now, and
the origin of Sox33 gene is an interesting target in
phylogenesis.
Key
words:
Bombina maxima, Sox
genes, HMG box, BmSox33. |
