CLONING OF CDNA-ENCODING RAT TCP-1

We have isolated and sequenched a cDNA encoding a rat homolog of th mouse t-complex polypeptide 1 (TCP-1). Its deduced gene product is a polypeptide of 556 amino acids, with a predicted M(r) of 60341. The similarity between mouse Tcp-1 and the rat homolog is about 94.0% at the nucleotide level and 97.1% at the amino acid level showing the evolutionary conservation of this protein. The similarity of the amino acid sequence of the rat TCP-1 is not significantly biased to any of those from wild (TCP-1B) or from t-haplotype mice (TCP-1A). From a comparison of deduced amino acid sequences of eukaryotic TCP-1 proteins, we found highly conserved domains. Southern blot analysis revealed that there are at least two similar sequences to Tcp-1 in the rat, one is a structural gene and the other seems to be a processed pseudogene.