CLONING AND CHARACTERISATION OF ALKALI MYOSIN LIGHT CHAIN GENE (MLC-3) OF CATTLE FILARIAL PARASITE SETARIA DIGITATA

Lymphatic filariasis is a tropical disease caused by filarial parasites including Wuchereria bancrofti. Although bancroftian filariasis causes severe disabling and debilitating clinical conditions in human, very little is known about the molecular biology of the parasite. The paucity of parasitic material is the main reason for this lack of knowledge. Setaria digitata is a cattle filarial parasite, closely resembling W. bancrofti in many aspects. Therefore it can be used as a model organism to study W. bancrofti. In the present study, the genomic library of S. digitata adult parasites was constructed and probed with a 32P labeled partial mRNA sequence PCR amplified from a previously isolated cDNA clone containing a 661 bp mRNA transcript of S. digitata alkali myosin light chain gene. Isolated positive clones were sequenced and edited by using bioinformatics tools. Though the 5′ flanking region did not reveal any consensus TATA box sequences, a potential CAAT box like sequence, CCAAT and seven possible transcription factor elements were identified. The entire gene had four exons encoding 149 amino acids interrupted by three introns of varying lengths of 87, 295 and 69 bp respectively. Sequences around the splice junctions were fairly conserved and agreed with the general GT-AG splicing rule. The 3′ flanking region consists of three putative polyadenylation signals with the sequence AATAAA. The gene was AT rich with a GC content of 35%. Southern hybridisation studies suggested that this gene is likely to be a single-copy gene. Homology search of amino acid sequences showed more than 80% similarity with Caenorhabditis species and 40-50% with other vertebrate and invertebrate myosin light chains. Analysis of the amino acid sequence with the NCBI conserved domain database for interactive domain family identified the protein as a member of calcium binding protein family as it comprised of two highly conserved EF hand motifs, and may suggest a possible function in Ca2+ binding.