Porcine TCR CD3zeta-chain and eta-chain.

Complete porcine CD3zeta-chain cDNA sequence was obtained for the first time, and its genomic nucleotide sequence was investigated from exon 2 down to CD3eta-chain exon 8. The sequence of porcine CD3zeta-chain showed homologous amino acid sequence with human and murine counterparts, in contrast to CD3eta-chain exon 8 with diversity among animals previously investigated. CD3eta-chain peptide is an alternative splice form of CD3zeta-chain exon 7 splicing to CD3eta-chain exon 8 instead of CD3zeta-chain exon 8. The genomic sequences revealed that the splice acceptor sequences of CD3eta-chain exon 8 of all animals investigated to be completely uniform. Further, CD3eta-chain exon 8 amino acid sequences retained the unique characters of having high proline (Pro) and positively charged amino acid content except for rats and mice. Although the biological role of CD3eta-chain remains to be enigmatic, these evidences suggests the evolutional pressure to maintain its sequence.