The studies of urotensin Ⅱ receptor gene expression in zebrafish tissues

Abstract:

Urotensin Ⅱ receptor is a seven-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptor, and it is a specific receptor for urotensin Ⅱ which is the most potent mammalian vasoconstrictor to date. There are four different UT-like genes(uts2r1, uts2r2, uts2r3 and uts2r4) in zebrafish, located on four different chromosomes, while the nucleotide sequence of these uts2r gene varies, UT of chromosome 3 and chromosome 12 shared the highest homology of 47%, and shared 41.6% and 33% homology with the uts2r gene from 6th chromosome and 16th chromosome, respectively. Specific primers were designed for each gene analyzing mRNA expression of different adult fish tissues. Quantitative PCR results showed that uts2r1 gene on chromosome 3 has the highest expression level in the kidney, uts2r2 gene on chromosome 6 has the highest expression level in the spinal cord, and uts2r3 gene on chromosome 12 expressed the highest level in the heart, while the highest peak of uts2r4 mRNA on 16th chromosome expression emerged in the dorsal muscles.