Molecular cloning of estrogen receptors α and β in the ovary of a teleost fish, the Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Estrogen receptors (ER) in mammals have recently been shown to be encoded by two distinct genes, ER alpha and ER beta. In this study, cDNAs encoding two tilapia ER subtypes, tER5.1 and tER4.3, were cloned from an ovarian cDNA library of a teleost fish, the tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. The tER5.1 and tER4.3 contain complete open reading frames encoding 585 and 557 amino acid residues, respectively. The two receptors share about 12% homology in the A/B domain, 96% in the DNA binding domain (C domain), 12% in the D domain, 57% in the ligand binding domain (E damain), and 20% in the F domain. Phylogenetic analysis of ER proteins from various vertebrate species indicated that vertebrate ERs consist of two major groups (ER alpha and ER beta); tER5.1 and tER4.3 belong to ER alpha and ER beta subtypes, respectively. Thus, we consider tER5.1 and tER4.3 to be the tilapia homologs of ER alpha (tER alpha) and ER beta (tER beta), respectively. In transient transfection assays using mammalian COS-7 cells, both tER alpha and tER beta showed estradiol-17 beta dependent activation of transcription from the estrogen-responsive ERE-Luc promoter. This is the first report of the presence of ER alpha and ER beta within a single non-mammalian vertebrate species.