Isolation, Molecular Phylogeny, and Tissue Distribution of Four cDNAs Encoding the Apolipoprotein Multigene Family in Barred Knifejaw, Oplegnathus fasciatus (Teleostei, Perciformes)

Lipoproteins are complexes of lipids and specific apolipoproteins that are involved in lipid transport and redistribution among various tissues. In this study, we isolated full-length apolipoprotein cDNA sequences encoding apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), apoE, apoC-II, and apo-14 kDa in barred knifejaw, Oplegnathus fasciatus. In addition, we reconstructed phylogenetic trees and investigated mRNA tissue distributions. Alignment analyses of amino acid sequences revealed that secondary structures of the polypeptides apoA-I, apoE, and apoC-II in barred knifejaw are well conserved with their teleostean and mammalian counterparts in terms of characteristic tandem repetitive units forming amphipathic ${\alpha}$-helices. Both the sequence alignment data and cleavage sites of apo-14 kDa indicated a clear differentiation between Percomorpha and Cypriniformes. Meanwhile, the phylogenetic trees of apolipoprotein sub-families suggested that the common ancestor prior to the split of the Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) and Sarcopterygii (tetrapods) would have possessed the primordial protein-encoding genes. Tissue distribution of each apolipoprotein transcript determined by semi-quantitative RTPCR showed that barred knifejaw apoA-I transcripts were more or less ubiquitously expressed in the liver, intestines, brain, muscle, spleen, and kidney. The most striking difference from previous observations on barred knifejaw was the ubiquitous expression of apoE across all somatic tissues. Barred knifejaw apoC-II showed tissue-specific expression in the liver and intestines, while the liver and brain were the major sites of apo-14kDa mRNA synthesis.