MOLECULAR CLONING AND TISSUE EXPRESSION PATTERN OF PARTIAL HEPATIC GROWTH FACTOR cDNA IN ARABIAN CAMEL (Camelus dromedarius)

The present study was performed to clone hepatic growth factor (HGF) in Arabian camel. RT-PCR was conducted on RNA from skeletal muscle using primers designed from the conserved regions in different animal species. The resultant PCR amplicon was subjected to sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. The results revealed that the obtained sequence belongs to HGF gene family. The nucleotides sequence was deposited in the GenBank with accession number KU736793. Furthermore, the data showed base frequencies of A = 32.77%, C = 21.67%, G = 22.06% and T = 23.5%. The nucleotide sequence alignment revealed that Camels dromedarius HGF showed 99% identity with C. bactrianus and C. ferus HGF, while it showed 97% identity with those of either Bos taurus, Capra hircus, Ovis aries and Equus caballus. Of the 766 nucleotides analysed, 36 substitutions varied from transitions and transversion were detected. The translated amino acids showed 2 non-synonymous substitutions discriminating camelids from other species; serine (S-46) into alanine (A(46)), alanine (A(46)) in other species at T-136 -> G(136). The results showed a clear expression of HGF mRNA in a wide variety of the tested tissues; skeletal muscle, spleen, testes, liver, kidney and heart. The obtained results could be useful for more understanding of the structural-function relationship of HGF in Arabian camel and addressing the genetic diversity of the Arabian camel.