Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Fovin is a novel gene product whose cDNA clone was isolated from a human fovea cDNA library by differential cross screening. In humans, fovin is more highly expressed in the fovea than in the mid-peripheral retina. The purpose of this study was to isolate the mouse orthologue of fovin and compare its expression profile to that found in humans.Methods: A cDNA clone for mouse fovin was identified in silico and the DNA sequence was determined. RNA was isolated from different mouse tissues and used for Northern blots and reverse transcriptase PCR. Results: A mouse fovin cDNA clone, ATCC1, was identified during a Blast search of mouse EST sequences and is ∼2.5 kb long. There is high, ∼80%, sequence identity in one region of the clone while the identity in the rest of the clone is low. Northern blot analysis, using a probe that is highly conserved between the mouse and human, identifies a 4.4 kb band. High levels of fovin expression are found in the brain, liver and kidney of the mouse. This correlates with the high level of fovin expression found in the human fetal and adult brain. The mouse expression profile differs from that of the human in that fovin expression is not seen in the human adult liver or kidney but fovin is found in the human fetal kidney. Conclusions: The human and mouse fovin transcripts are 4.4 kb long. Fovin is selectively expressed in a variety of tissues because on Northern blots it was not found in every tissue assayed. The adult mouse expression profile for fovin is more similar to the human fetal than the human adult profile. High levels of fovin expression suggest that fovin is necessary for normal tissue function.
Keywords: 417 gene/expression • 554 retina