Cloning and molecular evolution research of porcine GAD65 gene

Glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) has been found in animal and higher plant tissues as well as in yeasts and microorganisms. In animals the enzyme plays an important role in central nervous system activity because the enzyme substrate glutamic acid is a mediator of excitation process and the product, gamma-aminobutyric acid, is the most important mediator of inhibition process in the central nervous system. GAD65 is one form of the glutamate decarboxylases (GAD), GAD65 has been identified as a major autoantigen in type 1 diabetes, so the GAD65 gene of porcine was cloned by RT-PCR method to construct phylogenetic tree, the homology of 13 glutamate decarboxylases (GAD) of different origin was analyzed by multiple alignment.