Identification, Molecular Characterization, and Tissue Expression Profiles of Three Smad Genes from Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis).

Jie Zhang,Guangle Zhang,Yongwang Miao

doi:10.3390/genes12101536

Abstract

Smads are involved in a variety of biological activities by mediating bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signals. The full-length coding sequences (CDSs) of buffalo Smads 1, 4, and 5 were isolated and identified through RT-PCR in this study. Their lengths are 1398 bp, 1662 bp, and 1398 bp, respectively. In silico analysis showed that their transcriptional region structures, as well as their amino acid sequences, physicochemical characteristics, motifs, conserved domains, and three-dimensional structures of their encoded proteins are highly consistent with their counterparts in the species of Bovidae. The three Smad proteins are all hydrophilic without the signal peptides and transmembrane regions. Each of them has an MH1 domain and an MH2 domain. A nuclear localization sequence was found in the MH1 domain of buffalo Smads 1 and 5. Prediction showed that the function of the three Smads is mainly protein binding, and they can interact with BMPs and their receptors. The three genes were expressed in all 10 buffalo tissues assayed, and their expression in the mammary gland, gonad, and spleen was relatively high. The results here indicate that the three buffalo Smads may be involved in the transcriptional regulation of genes in a variety of tissues.

Highlights

Smad was a family of proteins created with the identification of human Smad1 according to its sequence similarity to the Sma in C. elegans and the Mad (Mothers Against Decapentaplegic) in Drosophila [1]
The homology search showed that the coding sequences (CDSs) from the three amplicons of 1542 bp, 1953 bp, and 1612 bp had high similarity with those of Smads 1, 4, and 5 of other common species of Bovidae
The obtained sequences here are the sequences of buffalo Smads 1, 4, and 5

Summary

Introduction

Smad was a family of proteins created with the identification of human Smad according to its sequence similarity to the Sma (small worm phenotype) in C. elegans and the Mad (Mothers Against Decapentaplegic) in Drosophila [1]. Cattle Smads 1, 4, and 5 are located on the autosomal chromosomes 17, 24, and 7, and consists of 6, 11, and 7 exons, respectively. Their coding sequences (CDSs) are 1398 bp, 1662 bp, and 1398 bp (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene, accessed on 22 September 2021), respectively. Smad has previously been found to be expressed in the testis, ovary, liver, pancreas, small intestine, thymus gland, skeleton muscle, cardiac muscle, and lymph, suggesting that the Smad is widely expressed [11]. There are few reports on the research of buffalo Smads

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion