Cloning and sequencing of a novel metallothionein gene in Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam

Metallothionein (MT) is a ubiquitous, metal-inducible protein with an important role in the homeostasis and in the detoxification of heavy metals. This work reports the cloning and sequencing of a MT gene encoding a MT isoform (MT20-IIIa) in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam, a lamellibranch mollusc known to accumulate and to detoxify large amounts of metal. The MT gene, lacking the 5' promoter region, is 1865 bp long and has a tripartite structure consisting of three exons and two introns. The putative open reading frame (ORF) encodes a polypeptide of 72 amino acids, which corresponds to the MT-I class, type 2 family (http://www.unizh.ch/similar tomtpage/classif.html). The structure of the gene and the putative MT20-III protein have been compared with those of other species. The putative biological significance of the differences at the amino acid level among the different MTs is discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.