Molecular cloning of cDNAs encoding rat and human medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and assignment of the gene to human chromosome 1.

Rat liver mRNA encoding the precursor of medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase was purified to near homogeneity by polysome immunoadsorption using a polyclonal, monospecific antibody. A single-stranded, 32P-labeled cDNA probe was synthesized using the enriched mRNA as template and was used to screen directly 15,000 colonies from a total rat liver cDNA library constructed in pBR322. One clone [600 base pairs (bp)] was positively identified by hybrid-selected translation combined with mitochondrial processing of translated products. Using the isolated rat cDNA as probe, 43,000 colonies from a human liver cDNA library were screened. Three overlapping clones (1100 bp, 500 bp, and 400 bp) were isolated and positively identified by hybrid-selected translation. The largest human cDNA clone was subcloned into the transcription vector pGEM-2, which contains a bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase promoter. In vitro transcription of this recombinant, followed by in vitro translation, showed that the cDNA clone coded for approximately 80% of the medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase protein. The sizes of rat and human mRNAs encoding the precursor of medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase were 2.2 and 2.4 kilobases long, respectively, as determined by blot hybridization analysis of electrophoretically fractionated poly(A)+ RNA. Southern blot analysis of DNAs from human-rodent somatic cell hybrids with an isolated human cDNA assigned the gene coding for this enzyme to the short arm of chromosome 1, band p31. The chromosomal assignment was confirmed by in situ hybridization of the probe to human metaphase cells. Direct screening of cDNA libraries using a highly enriched mRNA to generate a probe, as demonstrated in this study, may provide the most rapid and convenient approach to cDNA cloning of low-abundance mRNAs.