Uncoupling protein 2 and 3 in marsupials: identification, phylogeny, and gene expression in response to cold and fasting in Antechinus flavipes

We searched for the presence of uncoupling protein genes so far unknown in marsupials and monotremes and identified uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) and UCP3 full-length cDNAs in libraries constructed from the marsupials Antechinus flavipes and Sminthopsis macroura. Marsupial UCP2 is 89-90% identical to rodent UCP2, whereas UCP3 exhibits 80% identity to mouse UCP3. A phylogenetic tree including all known UCPs positions the novel marsupial UCP2 and UCP3 at the base of the mammalian orthologs. In the 5'-untranslated region of UCP2 a second open reading frame encoding for a 36-amino acid peptide was identified which is highly conserved in all vertebrate UCP2 transcripts. Analysis of tissue specificity in A. flavipes with homologous cDNA probes revealed ubiquitous presence of UCP2 mRNA and striated muscle specificity of UCP3 mRNA resembling the known expression pattern in rodents. Neither UCP2 nor UCP3 gene expression was stimulated in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle of cold exposed A. flavipes. However, UCP3 mRNA expression was upregulated 6-fold in heart and 2.5-fold in skeletal muscle as reported for rodents in response to fasting. Furthermore, UCP3 mRNA seems to be coregulated with PDK4 mRNA, indicating a relation to enhanced lipid metabolism. In contrast, UCP2 gene expression was not regulated in response to fasting in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle but was diminished in the lung and increased in adipose tissue. Taken together, the sequence analysis, tissue specificity and physiological regulation suggest a conserved function of UCP2 and UCP3 during 130 million years of mammalian evolution.