Molecular characterization and tissue expression profile of three novel ovine genes: ATP5O, NDUFA12 and UQCRH from muscle full-length cDNA library of black-boned sheep.

Three novel ovine genes were obtained from muscle full-length cDNA library of black-boned sheep. Sequence analysis revealed that nucleotide sequences of these genes were not homologous to any of the known sheep or goat genes, but these genes have high similarity to ATP synthase subunit O (ATP5O), NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1 alpha subcomplex, 12 (NDUFA12) and ubiquinol-cytochrome c reductase hinge protein (UQCRH) genes of other mammal animals (accession number: FJ546085, FJ546078 and FJ546083). The alignment analysis showed that the ovine ATP5O, NDUFA12 and UQCRH genes and proteins have closer genetic relationships with the ATP5O, NDUFA12 and UQCRH genes and proteins from cattle. Conserved domain prediction showed that these three genes included OSCP, NDUFA12 superfamily and UCR-hinge superfamily domains respectively. The deduced sequence of ATP5O, NDUFA12 and UQCRH protein had 213, 145 and 91 amino acid residues, with a molecular weight of approximately 23419.66, 17089.50 and 10657.75 Da and a theoretical isoelectric point of 9.90, 9.68 and 4.45. The secondary structure prediction revealed that 60% helix structure in ATP5O, 60% coils in NDUFA12 and no strand in UQCRH. One potential signal peptide structure in ATP5O protein were found. NDUFA12 and UQCRH have the extremely low possibility of signal peptides. Meanwhile, RasMol was used for visualizing the PDB files generated by Swiss-Model in cartoon or three-dimensional format. ATP5O and UQCRH protein were modeled by Swiss-Model. Tissue expression profile indicated that the ovine ATP5O, NDUFA12 and UQCRH genes could be expressed in all detected tissues including muscles, heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney and adipose tissues, but the expression abundance of these genes were various in the different tissues. Our experiment supplied the primary foundation for further researches on these three ovine genes.