Two calmodulin genes are expressed in Arbacia punctulata. An ancient gene duplication is indicated.

Calmodulin is highly conserved, and only in the sea urchin Arbacia punctulata have two distinct isotypes been reported. We have isolated and sequenced two cDNAs from a lambda gt 11 library constructed from RNA from ovary tissue of A. punctulata. One clone, designated alpha, encodes a calmodulin isotype previously designated A. It encodes an amino acid sequence that is identical with calmodulin of most vertebrates in positions 1 through 141; however, it does not encode the last seven amino acids. The other clone, designated beta, starts with an open reading frame and encodes the B form of calmodulin from position 11 through the C-terminal position 148. It has only four differences from vertebrate calmodulin, occurring at positions 78 (Asp, beta Glu), 99 (Tyr, beta Phe), 143 (Gln, beta Ala) and 147 (Ala, beta Ser). The nucleic acid sequences of the alpha and beta cDNAs differ at 46 nucleotide positions that are distributed throughout their coding sequences. We conclude that the corresponding mRNAs are not derived from post-transcriptional processing of a single gene, and we infer that they are transcribed from two non-allelic genes. The gene duplication is inferred to have occurred prior to the divergence of the vertebrates and the echinoderms. The expression of these calmodulin mRNAs in ovary tissue and eggs of a single animal differs as judged by hybridization of probes to RNA immobilized to filters.