Molecular Cloning, Expression, and Enzymatic Analysis of Protein kinase C βI and βII from Inshore hagfish (Eptatretus burgeri)

Inshore hagfish (Eptatretus burgeri) belongs to chordate and cyclostomata, so it is considered to be an important organism for the study of embryology and biological evolution. Protein kinase C (PKC) performs a wide range of biological functions regarding proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, motility, and inflammation with cellular signal transduction. In this study, PKC beta isoforms, a member of the conventional class, were cloned. As a result, EbPKCβI and EbPKCβII showed the same sequence in conserved regions (C1, C2, C3, and C4 domain), but not in the C-terminal called the V5 domain. The ORFs of EbPKCβI and EbPKCβII were 2,007 bp and 2,004 bp, respectively. In the analysis of tissue specific expression patterns by qPCR, EbPKCβI was remarkably highly expressed in the root of the tongue and the spinal cord, while EbPKCβII was highly expressed in the gill, liver, and gut. The EbPKC βI and EbPKCβII expressed in E. coli revealed PKC activity according to both qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis.