Abstract

GLI family zinc finger 3 (GLI3) has been shown to play a critical role in the regulation of Hedgehog signaling, with important implications in embryonic and postnatal development. However, the molecular characteristics of GLI3 gene and its expression profile in pig tissues have yet to be elucidated. In this study, the full-length cDNA sequence of the GLI3 gene from the lung of landrace pig was cloned and characterized using RT-PCR/RACE-PCR. The GLI3 full-length cDNA sequence was 6,064 bp, consisting of 4,761 bp of coding sequence encoding 1,586 amino acids with a molecular mass of 168.91 kDa. The 5′ UTR and 3′ UTR were 120 bp and 1,183 bp in length, respectively. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed a high similarity of the pig GLI3 amino acid sequence to that of other mammalian species. Furthermore, qRT-PCR analysis revealed that the GLI3 transcript was ubiquitously expressed in all tissues tested in this study, including the heart, liver, spleen, lung, brain, tongue and muscle. These results will provide a molecular basis for further studies of porcine GLI3 gene function.

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