Sheep have an unusual variant of the brain-specific metallothionein, metallothionein-III

Roger S. Chung, Adele F. Holloway, Bedrich L. Eckhardt, Julie A. Harris, James C. Vickers, Meng Inn Chuah, Adrian K. West

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sheep metallothionein-III (MT-III) cDNA was isolated from a brain cDNA library and characterized. In contrast with MT-III from other species, sheep MT-III cDNA is predicted to encode a protein with significantly different metal-binding properties, owing to the loss of three of its cysteine residues. RT-PCR from other sheep confirmed that this aberrant structure is ubiquitous in this species. MT-III was successfully isolated from sheep brain, demonstrating that the cDNA does give rise to a protein product of the predicted structure. Sheep MT-III is similar to other mammalian MT-IIIs in that it retains the Cys-Pro-Cys-Pro motif which is thought to encode growth-inhibitory activity, and we show that it is likewise able to inhibit neuron survival in vitro. This is the first naturally occurring variant of MT-III (or any other major mammalian MT gene) which gives rise to a protein product. These findings are discussed in light of proposed roles of MT in the mammalian brain.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)323-328
Number of pages6
JournalBiochemical Journal
Volume365
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2002
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Corrigendum can be found in Biochemical journal, 365(3), p.903, 2002.
https://doi.org/10.1042/bj3650903v

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