Structure Alignments of Zebrafish p53 Gene and Its Application in Ecotoxicology
斑马鱼p53基因结构比对分析及其在生态毒理学中的应用

Zebrafish p53 gene structure and amino acid sequence conservation of twelve vertebrates were analyzed. The results showed that zebrafish p53 gene comprised 11 exons and 10 introns. Exon 1 and part of exon 11 encode untranslated region (UTR)of mRNA. The p53 cDNA was 2089 bp long containing an open reading frame (ORF)of 1122 bp. This ORF encoded a polypeptide with 373 amino acids. The 5'-UTR and 3'-UTR were 43 bp and 924 bp respectively. Protein sequence alignments of p53 gene among 12 vertebrates including human showed a remarkable conservation in several domains, which had been shown to be critical for p53 function. The research indicated that zebrafish p53 gene could be used as a molecular model to evaluate the genotoxicity of environmental chemicals in the future.