Cloning and expression of koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) liver cytochrome P450 reductase
Sandra Kong a, Suong N.T. Ngo a,b,⁎, Ross A. McKinnon a, Ieva Stupans a
a Sansom Institute, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
b School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Pharmacy Discipline, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia
ABSTRACT
The cloning, expression and characterization of hepatic NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) from koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is described. Two 2059 bp koala liver CPR cDNAs, designated CPR1 and CPR2, were cloned by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and rapid amplification of cDNA ends. The koala CPR cDNAs encode proteins of 678 amino acids and share 85% amino acid sequence identity to human CPR. Transfection of the koala CPR cDNAs into Cos-7 cells resulted in the expression of proteins, which were recognized by a goat-antihuman CPR antibody. The koala CPR1 and 2 cDNA-expressed enzymes catalysed cytochrome c reductase at the rates of 4.9±0.5 and 2.6±0.4 nmol/min/mg protein (mean±SD, n=3), respectively which were comparable to that of rat CPR cDNA-expressed enzyme. The apparent Km value for CPR activity in koala liver microsomes was 11.61±6.01 µM, which is consistent with that reported for rat CPR enzyme. Northern analysis detected a CPR mRNA band of approximately 2.6 kb. Southern analysis suggested a single PCR gene across species. The present study provides primary molecular data regarding koala CPR1 and CPR2 genes in this unique marsupial species.