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All Roads Lead to Arginine: The Squid Protamine Gene

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Abstract

The protamine of squid is one of the most arginine-rich protamines (77%, mol/mol). It possesses a leading sequence that is posttranslationally removed during spermatogenesis in a manner that is analogous to that observed in some of its vertebrate protamine counterparts. In this paper we describe the gene sequence of the protamine of the squid Loligo opalescens. This represents the first complete gene sequence ever reported for an invertebrate protamine. Like those of vertebrate protamines, the messenger RNA is polyadenylated but the gene does not contain an intron. The promoter region contains the major transcriptional regulatory elements (CRE, TATA box, and CAP) that are also characteristic of the vertebrate protamine genes. It is unclear whether the similarities of protamines in species from both the deuterostome and the protostome branches represent the result of phylogenetic conservation or evolutionary convergence.

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Acknowledgments

This is work was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Grant OGP 0046399.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3055, Petch Building Room 220, Victoria, B.C., V8W 3P6, Canada

    John D. Lewis, Miriam E. de Jong, Sabira M. Bagha, Alpina Tang & Juan Ausió

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, 93950-3094, USA

    William F. Gilly

Authors
  1. John D. Lewis
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  2. Miriam E. de Jong
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  3. Sabira M. Bagha
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  4. Alpina Tang
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  5. William F. Gilly
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  6. Juan Ausió
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Ausió.

Additional information

Sequence submitted: GenBank AY269798

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Lewis, J.D., de Jong, M.E., Bagha, S.M. et al. All Roads Lead to Arginine: The Squid Protamine Gene. J Mol Evol 58, 673–680 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2589-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-004-2589-8

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