Molecular cloning and sequencing of the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene from lesser panda

The authors employed the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify the full coding region of the BDNF gene from lesser panda (Ailurus fulgens) genomic DNA directly with the primers based on the sequence of human BDNF gene. The amplified fragment was cloned and sequenced. Sequence analysis showed that the coding region of BDNF gene from lesser panda was highly homologous with that of human and giant panda counterpart genes (93% and 98% homology, repectively). It was found that there were only four amino acid residues showing difference in the prosequence region by comparing the deduced amino acid sequence of BDNF gene of lesser panda with that of human. However, the amino acid sequence of mature BDNF from lesser panda is identical to that of alll the reported mammalian BDNFs.