Identification of a Parathyroid Hormone in the Fish Fugu rubripes

Abstract

A PTH gene has been isolated from the fish Fugu rubripes. The encoded protein of 80 amino acid has the lowest homology with any of the PTH family members. Fugu PTH(1-34) had 5-fold lower potency than human PTH(1-34) in a mammalian cell system. Introduction: Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is the major hypercalcemic hormone in higher vertebrates. Fish lack parathyroid glands, but there have numerous attempts to identify and isolate PTH from fish. Materials and Methods: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed with primers based on preliminary data from the Joint Genome Institute database. PCR amplification was performed on genomic DNA isolated from Fugu rubripes. PCR products were purified and..