Abstract

Visfatin was a newly identified adipocytokine, which was involved in various physiologic and pathologic processes of organisms. The cDNA structure, genomic organization and expression patterns of silver Prussian carp visfatin were described in this report. The silver Prussian carp visfatin cDNA cloned from the liver was ~2.0 Kb long and contained a 1482 bp open reading frame (ORF), which encoded a protein of 493 amino acids. Furthermore, the complete gene was isolated from fin ray total genomic DNA. The whole gene was ~10 Kb and consisted of 11 exons and 9 introns. The coding sequence of silver Prussian carp visfatin had a close relationship with some other species, such as common carp, green spotted puffer fish, house mouse, porcine, human and so on. However, the non-coding sequences showed great variation from others. Particularly, the length and complexity of silver Prussian carp visfatin gene were less complicated. The results of tissue distribution analysis revealed that silver Prussian carp visfatin mRNA was broadly expressed and had higher levels in gill, heart, ovary and mesenteric adipose, indicating that visfatin played an important role in silver Prussian carp.

Key words: Silver Prussian carp, visfatin, cDNA cloning, exon-intron organization, expression profiles.