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Apolipoproteins such as apolipoprotein (apo) A-I, apoA-IV, and apoE are lipid binding proteins synthesized mainly in the liver and the intestine and play an important role in the transfer of exogenous or endogenous lipids through the circulatory system. To investigate the mechanism of lipid transport in fish, we have isolated some novel genes of the apoA-I family, apoIA-I (apoA-I isoform) 1–11, from Japanese eel by PCR amplification. Some of the isolated genes of apoIA-I corresponded to 28kDa-1 cDNAs which had already been deposited into the database and encoded an apolipoprotein with molecular weight of 28 kDa in the LDL, whereas others seemed to be novel genes. The structural organization of all apoIA-Is consisted of four exons separated by three introns. ApoIA-I10 had a total length of 3232 bp, whereas other genes except for apoIA-I9 ranged from 1280 to 1441 bp. The sequences of apoIA-Is at the exon-intron junctions were mostly consistent with the consensus sequence (GT/AG) at exon-intron boundaries, whereas the sequences of 3′ splice acceptor in intron 1 of apoIA-I1-7 were (AC) but not (AG). The deduced amino acid sequences of all apoIA-Is contained a putative signal peptide and a propeptide of 17 and 5 amino acid residues, respectively. The mature proteins of apoIA-I1-3, 7, and 8 consisted of 237 amino acids, whereas those of apoIA-I4-6 consisted of 239 amino acids. The mature apoIA-I10 sequence showed 65% identity to amino acid sequence of apoIA-I11 which was associated with an apolipoprotein with molecular weight of 23 kDa in the VLDL. All these mature apoIA-I sequences satisfied the common structural features depicted for the exchangeable apolipoproteins such as apoA-I, apoA-IV, and apoE but apoIA-I11 lacked internal repeats 7, 8, and 9 when compared with other members of apoA-I family. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these novel apoIA-Is isolated from Japanese eel were much closer to apoA-I than apoA-IV and apoE, suggesting new members of the apoA-I family.

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