Sequence and analysis of zona pellucida 2 cDNA (ZP2) from a marsupial, the brushtail possum,Trichosurus vulpecula

Isolation and characterisation of zona pellucida A (ZPA) cDNAs from two species of marsupial: regulated oocyte-specific expression of ZPA transcripts

“…In this study we have determined a complete possum and a partial dunnart ZPA cDNA sequence and we have also demonstrated expression of possum ZPA transcripts in the cytoplasm of the oocyte of both nongrowing and growing follicles. The findings of this study show close parallels with those of our previous investigation of possum ZPB (Haines et al, 1999) and they complement the recent findings of Mate & McCartney (1998). It remains to be determined whether the 14 The 13 nucleotide and 7 amino acid residues that distinguish the sequence we have determined from that of Mate & McCartney (1998) are shown in bold.…”

“…2). Furthermore, the conservation of a potential furin protease cleavage site in the marsupial ZP proteins seen here and elsewhere (Mate & McCartney, 1998;Haines et al, 1999) suggests that a furin-like protease could be involved in the release of membrane-anchored ZP elements in marsupials as well as in eutherians (Harris et al, 1994;Green, 1997).…”

“…The sequence of the possum ZPA cDNA reported here and that reported by Mate & McCartney (1998) for the same gene differ by single nucleotides at 14 sites, 12 of which are scattered throughout the open reading frame ( Table 1). The sequences of the conceptual proteins encoded by these cDNAs differ at seven amino acid residues (Table 1) and only one of these amino acids differences represents a conservative substitution.…”

“…Differences between the possum ZPA cDNA sequence reported in this paper and the sequence published byMate & McCartney (1998) (GenBank accession number AF079525).…”

Cloning and characterisation of a zona pellucida 3 cDNA from a marsupial, the brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula

“…This would indicate further processing, such as the addition of oligosaccharides, to form the mature 62 kDa protein detected by SDS-PAGE. Similar processing of ZP2 must also occur to account for differences in the estimated core protein weight of 75 kDa (Mate & McCartney, 1998) and the size observed (92 kDa) in this study by SDS-PAGE.…”