• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.223-229
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• 2011

Cyclophilins are originally identified as cytosolic binding protein of the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporine A. They have an activity of peptidyl prolyl cis/trans-isomerases (PPIase), which may play important roles in protein folding, trafficking, assembly and cell signaling. In this study, we report the cloning and characterization of a Bombyx mori cyclophilin A (bCypA) cDNA. The full-length cDNA of bCypA consist of 947 nucleotides with a polyadenylation signal sequence AATAAA and contain an open reading frame of 498 nucleotides encoding a polypeptide of 166 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence of bCypA shares a central peptidyl prolyl cis/trans-isomerase and a cyclosporin-A-binding domain with other cyclophilin sequences. Relative quantification real-time (RT) PCR analysis shows that mRNA transcripts of bCypA are detected in all the investigated tissues and highest expression level in the skin of 3-day-old 5 instar larva. Also, bCypA had PPIase activity on the proline-containing peptides. Accordingly, we suggest that bCypA is a new member of the cyclophilin A (CyPA) family and will be useful for quality control of bioactivity recombinant proteins with proline-containing peptides.