Molecular characterization of the sheep <Emphasis Type="Italic">CIB1</Emphasis> gene

The calcium and integrin binding protein 1(CIB1), is an EF-hand-containing protein that binds many effector proteins including the platelet αIIbβ3 integrin and potentially regulates their functions. Here we report the cloning and characterization of the sheep CIB1 gene. The CIB1 cDNA is 885-bp in size, containing a 45-bp of 5′ untranslated region (UTR), a 264-bp long 3′-UTR and a 576-bp open reading frame that encodes 191 amino acids. The sheep CIB1 cDNA shows 98.3, 92.0, 91.8, 91.3, 90.5 and 90.1% of similarity, at the nucleotide level, to its equivalents in cattle, pigs, rhesus monkey, humans, rats and mice, respectively at the deduced protein level, the corresponding values are more than 94%. The sheep CIB1 gene consisted of seven exons. Quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) showed that CIB1 was widely expressed in different tissues with the highest level in the testis, suggesting that it may play a role in ram fertility. We cloned the sheep CIB2, CIB3 and CIB4 genes and detected their expression patterns in different tissues.