Abstract:
By use of the relevant information about nucleic acid and protein of Nodal molecules in GenBank, and the bioinformatics methods are adopted to the analysis of the biological features of Nodal molecule and its splicing isoforms and the gene cloning method is used to clone the human Nodal gene. The results show that the Nodal gene has at least four splicing isoforms. Of the four forms, only Isoform 1 is relatively complete and is clearly studied; information concerning the other forms is incomplete and their functions are not known and there might exist tissue specificity in expression; in particular, though the coding sequences of the amino acids of isoform 1 is known, yet it is found that the mRNA reference sequence Nodal gene offered by NCBI is not complete. Through gene cloning, a new splicing isoform is found for the Nodal gene, which might possess the typical structure of TGF-β superfamily, yet its functions remain unclear. The results indicate that the human Nodal gene has at least 5 splicing isoforms; except for isoform 1, the other four are in need of further examination.