A novel osteopontin-like protein is expressed in the trout ovary during ovulation
Résumé
Using suppression subtraction hybridization between ovulatory and postovulatory trout ovaries, a down-regulated cDNA was obtained that presumably encodes a novel ovarian protein ('NOP'), NOP mRNA is present in the ovary during ovulation and down-regulated by 48 h postovulation, suggesting an important role for NOP during ovulation, Besides the ovary, NOP is also strongly expressed in the testis and at lower levels in the skin, gills, kidney and gastrointestinal tract. While the overall identity is not high, NOP shares several sequence similarities with mammalian and chicken osteopontins, including the percentage of aspartate, serine and alanine residues and the presence of a cell attachment motif