Abstract
Human serum contains natural antibodies (NAb), which can bind to endothelial cell surface antigens of other mammals. This is believed to be the major initiating event in the process of hyperacute rejection of pig to primate xenografts. Recent work has implicated galoctosyl α1,3 galactosyl β1,4 N-acetyl-glucosaminyl carbohydrate epitopes, on the surface of pig endothelial cells as a major target of human natural antibodies. This epitope is made by a specific galactosyltransferase (α1,3 GT) present in pigs but not in higher primates. We have now cloned and sequenced a full-length pig α1,3 GT cDNA. The predicted 371 amino acid protein sequence shares 85% and 76% identity with previously characterized cattle and mouse α1,3 GT protein sequences, respectively. By using fluorescence and isotopic in situ hybridization, the GGTA1 gene was mapped to the region q2.10–q2.11 of pig chromosome 1, providing further evidence of homology between the subterminal region of pig chromosome 1q and human chromosome 9q, which harbors the locus encoding the AB0 blood group system, as well as a human pseudogene homologous to the pig GGTA1 gene.
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The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank nucleotide sequence database and have been assigned the accession number L36152
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Strahan, K.M., Gu, F., Preece, A.F. et al. cDNA sequence and chromosome localization of pig α1,3 galactosyltransferase. Immunogenetics 41, 101–105 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00182319
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00182319