Molecular biology of the N2 allele of glb-5

A few years ago (Hoogewijs et al., 2007) we reported the amino acid sequence of GLB-5, which had been determined based on mRNA isolated from the Bristol (N2) strain of C. elegans. The translated protein sequence, 258 aa long, was deposited at EMBL (Accession no. EF471982, http://www.ebi.ac.uk/cgi-bin/emblfetch?style=html&id=EF471982&Submit=Go). Unfortunately, the incorrect annotation 358 was entered in Table 1 of our 2007 paper. As a result, incorrect predictions of mRNA and amino acid sequences were provided in WormBase, release WS210. We have repeated this experiment and confirm our earlier cDNA sequence, with the exception of one base and one corresponding amino acid substitution (red). The correct amino acid sequence for the N2 allele of glb-5 is:

MNETTVGVGKMYEEFRITQLVNETLTTVIEKVQTNHEKISTKAKPRPLSAINEEIREYDQLSRELEKDYRRSMRIVDDDF
ELARTHWIQLQKSNKQGLAIRGCFLTMLEKYPQVRPIWGFGKRIEGRGDETWKPEIVEDFYFRHHCASLQAALNMIIQNK
DDKSGMRRMLNEMGAHHFFYDACEPHFEVFQDSLLESMKLVLNGGDSLDDDIEQSWICTSLRIPPGSFEYDNSKQRRQKW
NAADAQRNGSSSLFLRCM

The encoding cDNA sequence is identical to the one published by McGrath et al., (2009):

atgaacgagacgacagtcggagttggaaaaatgtatgaagagtttcgaatcacacagcttgtgaatgaaactctaactac
tgttatcgaaaaagtgcaaaccaatcatgaaaaaatttctactaaagcaaagccgagacctttgagtgcaattaacgagg
aaattcgtgaatacgatcaattgagcagagaacttgaaaaagattaccgaaggagtatgcgaattgttgatgatgatttc
gaattggccaggacccattggatccaattacaaaaatcgaataaacaggggttggcaattcggggatgcttcctaacaat
gttagaaaagtatccacaagttcgtccaatttgggggtttggaaaaagaattgagggaaggggtgatgagacatggaagc
ctgagatcgtggaggatttttattttagacatcattgcgcatccctccaggcagctttgaatatgataattcaaaacaaa
gacgacaaaagtggaatgcggcggatgctcaacgaaatgggagctcatcactttttctacgatgcatgtgaaccacattt
tgaagtttttcaagacagtctcctagaatcaatgaagcttgtattaaatggtggtgactcgttggatgatgatattgagc
aatcttggatttgtacatcattgcgcatccctccaggcagctttgaatatgataattcaaaacaaagacgacaaaagtgg
aatgcggcggatgctcaacgaaatgggagctcatcactttttctacgatgcatgtgaaccacattttgaagtttttcaag
acagtctcctagaatcaatgaagcttgtattaaatggtggtgactcgttggatgatgatattgagcaatcttggatttgt
ctgctccaaacaatccgactacatatgggagaaggaatcgaaattcaaagagccaactatctaacgcaatgcttgattcc
aaaagaaatggaagaagtacgtgcgaattggatgcaagtcgaaaattacgggtttcgaaaagccgggcttttattgtgtc
aatcagcttttgacaactactcggaacttttgaaaactcataatttatcaatgactcttccaattgaagcaaacaagact
agtgatagttttgttgcattatcagatcaaattatgcaggcactggacaaaacaatacaatcctacactcccgaagaagg
attcttgaatttaattcaagaaattaaagactttgtgataaagttcttagtcgttgaagtatgccctccgcttattcgga
aatcttttatcgatggattaatccacatgctttgtaaaatattaagcatcaagcatgttaaggaagattttttgcacatt
tggaaaaaagtgtatcgtgtcatggaacaggcaatggttgcaaatatcgtagagtattag

The genomic sequence of the N2 glb-5 gene contains a duplication leading to a duplicated exon (bold) and a premature stop codon (red), resulting in a 258 aa protein. The gene of the Hawaiian strain of C. elegans lacks this duplication, resulting in a protein that is 398 aa long and identical with the N2 protein in its first 218 amino acids. Persson et al., (2009) also reported on GLB-5 from the Bristol and Hawaiian strain,s, but provided no full cDNA or protein sequence data.

References

Hoogewijs D, Geuens E, Dewilde S, Vierstraete A, Moens L, Vinogradov S, Vanfleteren JR. (2007). Wide diversity in structure and expression profiles among members of the Caenorhabditis elegans globin protein family. BMC Genomics 8, 356.

McGrath PT, Rockman MV, Zimmer M, Jang H, Macosko EZ, Kruglyak L, Bargmann CI. (2009). Quantitative mapping of a digenic behavioral trait implicates globin variation in C. elegans sensory behaviors. Neuron 61, 692-699.

Persson A, Gross E, Laurent P, Busch KE, Bretes H, and de Bono M. (2009). Natural variation in a neural globin tunes oxygen sensing in wild Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 458, 1030-1033.