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Cloning of the α Component of the Chick Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor Receptor: Developmental Expression and Down‐Regulation in Denervated Skeletal Muscle
Author(s) -
Ip Fancy C. F.,
Fu Amy K. Y.,
Tsim Karl W. K.,
Ip Nancy Y.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1046/j.1471-4159.1995.65062393.x
Subject(s) - biology , complementary dna , skeletal muscle , ciliary neurotrophic factor , microbiology and biotechnology , amino acid , receptor , endocrinology , neurotrophic factors , biochemistry , gene
A full‐length cDNA clone encoding for the chick CNTFRα (α component of the ciliary neurotrophic factor receptor) was isolated by screening an embryonic day 13 chick brain cDNA library with a rat CNTFRα probe. The isolated cDNA clone contained a ∼2‐kb insert with an open reading frame of 362 amino acids. The identification of this clone as chick CNTFRα was based on the homology in amino acid sequence (∼70%) with the rat and human CNTFRα. Hydropathy analysis revealed that the chick CNTFRα contains a hydrophobic region at the amino terminus that is typical of secretory signal peptides, as well as a hydrophobic region at the carboxyl terminus that is characteristic of glycosylphosphatidylinositol‐linked proteins. The expression of chick CNTFRα was developmentally regulated and was widely distributed in neural tissues, such as brain and spinal cord. In the periphery, chick CNTFRα transcript was expressed at high levels in the skeletal muscle and was only barely detectable in the liver. Unexpectedly, the expression of chick CNTFRα mRNA in skeletal muscle was decreased by ∼10‐fold at 1.5 days after denervation. This is in sharp contrast to the result previously obtained with CNTFRα in denervated rat muscle.