Cloning and Sequence Analysis of Transferrin Gene in Yak

Chen, Y., Ye, Y., Wang, L., Liu, Y., Li, S. and Jiang, M. 2009. Cloning and sequence analysis of transferrin gene in Yak. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 36: 147–151. To study the transferrin (tf) gene in yak, cDNA sequence encoding TF from yak was cloned by RT-PCR method using gene specific PCR primers. The cloned cDNA fragment (2215 bp) contains a 2115 bp open reading frame, encodes 704 amino acids (AAs) with a molecular mass of 77.552 KDa. The deduced amino sequence shows a high level of sequence identity to Bos taurus (99.24%), Sus scrofa (80.19%), Equus caballus (79.33%), Homo sapiens (77.83%) and Mus musculus (72.19%), respectively. tf gene was expressed only in liver tissues. It also contained two conserved TF domains: one is in its N-terminal (25 AAs-351 AAs) and the other in its C-terminal (364AAs-689AAs). The phylogenetic analysis showed that yak and Bos taurus were the closest species. The results of this study suggested that tf gene of yak plays the same function as other species.