[摘要]：The alpha-tocopherol transfer protein (a-TIP) is a similar to 32 kDa protein that exhibits a marked ligand specificity and selectively recognizes of alpha-tocopherol, which is the most active form of vitamin E. The alpha-TTP gene has been cloned and its physiological functions have been studied in numbers of species, however, the understanding of sheep alpha-TTP is still in his infancy. In this study, the full-length cDNA of sheep alpha-TTP gene was cloned from sheep liver by using of rapid amplification of complementary DNA ends (RACE). As a result, the sheep alpha-TTP gene was 1098 bp in nucleotide which contained 23 bp 5'-untranslated region (UTR), 226 bp 3'-UTR and 849 bp open reading frame (ORF) that encoded a basic protein of 282 amino acids. Further bioinformatic analysis indicated that the sheep alpha-TTP gene had a high homologous of both nucleotide and amino acid sequences compared with that of other species and had a Sec14p-like lipid-binding domain which called the CRAL-TRIO domain. Moreover, the expression of sheep alpha-TTP mRNA and protein in response to different vitamin E supplemented levels were observed according to quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting analysis. The results showed that dietary vitamin E levels did not affect alpha-TTP mRNA expression significantly while the low vitamin E supplemented level groups of sheep had significantly higher alpha-TTP protein compared to high-vitamin E groups. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
