CGC Bibliography Paper 5351

Widespread occurrence of serpin genes with multiple reactive centre-containing exon cassettes in insects and

Kruger O, Ladewig J, Koster K, Ragg H

Medline:

Citation:

Gene 293: 97-105 2002

Type:

ARTICLE

Genes:

spn-1 spn-7

Abstract:

By applying homology-search and text-mining programs we have found that the Drosophila serine protease inhibitor (serpin) gene sp4 harbours four reactive centre-coding exons. The mutually exclusive use of these cassettes in combination with alternatively selectable exons at the 5'-end or in the 3'-untranslated region of the gene allows generation of more than ten different transcripts, all of which are expressed in dependent on the splice pattern - either may be secreted, reside in the endoplasmic reticulum, or may be located in the cytoplasm. An examination revealed the presence of two serpin genes, each coding for two or three likely alternative reactive centre exon cassettes, respectively, also in the Caenorhabditis elegans genome. The occurrence of such serpin genes in some groups of metazoan reflects a parsimonious way to enlarge the adaptive ability of these organisms to cope with a plethora of different serine and cysteine proteases.