Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of cDNA encoding rat adrenal cytochrome P‐45011β

Abstract

A cDNA clone encoding cytochrome P-450_11β of rat adrenal has been cloned and sequenced using a bovine P-450_11β cDNA insert (pcP-450(11β)-2; (1987) J. Biochem. 102, 559–568) as a probe. The nucleotide sequence contains an open reading frame sufficient to encode the entire amino acid sequence of a P-450_11β precursor protein consisting of 499 amino acids including an extension peptide of 24 amino acids at the NH₂-terminus. The cDNA contains 1247 nucleotides at the 3′-noncoding region including 51 nucleotides of poly A, but lacks the 5′-noncoding region. The deduced amino acid sequence shows 61% similarity to that of bovine P-450_11β. Putative binding sites for heme and steroid are highly conserved among steroidogenic P-450s of known structure.