Molecular cloning and expression of visinin-like protein 1 from Gekko japonicus spinal cord

Abstract

Visinin-like protein 1 (VILIP-1), a myristoylated calcium sensor protein of the EF-hand Ca2+-binding protein superfamily, plays multiple physiological roles in the central nervous system and peripheral organs. In present study, the cDNA encoding VILIP-1 was identified from the brain and spinal cord cDNA library of Gekko japonicus. It contains a 573 bp open reading frame corresponding to a deduced protein of 191 amino acids. Gecko VILIP-1 shares more than 95.3% identity with vertebrate VILIP-1 proteins, and structurally consists of conserved four EF-hand Ca2+-binding motifs and one dsRNA-binding domain, suggesting that selective pressure must have been extremely high for the conservation of VILIP-1 during vertebrate evolution. Northern blot and RT-PCR showed that gecko VILIP-1 was ubiquitously expressed in all tissues examined. In situ hybridization revealed that the VILIP-1 transcript mainly appeared in the gray matter of the spinal cord, with less distribution in the white matter. Semiquantitative RT-PCR also showed that VILIP-1 expression in spinal cord after tail amputation remained stable at 1 day and 1 week, but decreased at 2 weeks, a time coinciding with regeneration bud formation. This suggests that VILIP-1 may function as a regeneration-associated factor in the form of a monomer or/and RNA-binding complex.