• 생명과학회지
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.341-347
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• 1999

Insects use chitinolytic enzyme to digest chitin in the exoskelton during the molting process. We have isolated and sequenced a chitinase-encoding cDNA from the silkworm, Bombyx mandarina, compared its sequenced with genes encoding chitinolytic enzymes from other sources. The insert DNA in the clone is 2,675 nucleotides long with an open reading frame of 1,695 uncletides that encodes a protein of 565 amino acids with a molecuar weight of 63.4 kDa. The 3' -untranslated region of 889 nucleotides is AT-rich and contains two putative polyadenylation signals. The N-terminal sequence of the encoded protein contains numerous hydrophobic residues characteristic of a leader peptide. The amino acid alignment revealed that the endo-$\beta$-N-acetylglucosaminidase had 83% and 97% homology with M. sexta and B. mori, respectively. The deduced amino acid had two highly conserved region at the amino acid residues 97-111 and 139-148 that were related to the existing chitinase.