Acta Pharmacologica Sinica 2006 February; 27 (2): 184-192; doi: 10.1111/j.1745-7254.2006.00262.x

Acta Pharmacologica Sinica 2006 February; 27 (2): 184-192; doi: 10.1111/j.1745-7254.2006.00262.x

Original Article

Thrombin-like enzymes from venom gland of Deinagkistrodon acutus: cDNA cloning, mechanism of diversity and phylogenetic tree construction¹

Xiang-dong ZHA^2,3,7, He-sheng HUANG^4,7, Li-zhi ZHOU^2,3, Jing LIU⁵, Kang-sen XU⁶

²School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei 230039, China; ³Anhui Key Laboratory of Eco-Engineering and Bio-techniques, Hefei 230039, China; ⁴Department of Pharmacology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, China; ⁵School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China; ⁶Institute for Control of Pharmaceuticals and Biological Products, Beijing 100050, China

Aim: To clone cDNAs of thrombin-like enzymes (TLEs) from venom gland of Deinagkistrodon acutus and analyze the mechanisms by which their structural diversity arose.

Methods: Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and gene cloning techniques were used, and the cloned sequences were analyzed by using bioinformatics tools.

Results: Novel cDNAs of snake venom TLEs were cloned. The possibilities of post-transcriptional recombination and horizontal gene transfer are discussed. A phylogenetic tree was constructed.

Conclusion: The cDNAs of snake venom TLEs exhibit great diversification. There are several types of structural variations. These variations may be attributable to certain mechanisms including recombination.

Keywords: thrombin-like enzymes; structural diversity; RNA recombination; phylogenetic tree

¹Project supported by the Innovative Res-earch Team of the 211 Project of Anhui University.

⁷ Correspondence to Prof Xiang-dong ZHA and Prof He-sheng HUANG.
Phn 86-551-2510-6533.
Fax 86-551-2510-7354.
E-mail xdcha@163.com
Received 2005-07-07 Accepted 2005-10-11

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