Cloning of the Oxidative Stress-responsive Genes in Caenorhabditis elegans

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Abstract
Defense systems against free radicals and reactive oxygen species minimize the lethal and mutagenic consequences of these destructive agents. To investigate the genetic response to oxidative stress in a eukaryote, we cloned and characterized oxidative stress-responsive genes by comparing gene expression in the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans under atmospheric conditions and high oxygen concentrations using a method of RNA arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction method (RAP-PCR). We identified four genes whose expression levels increase under high oxygen. These encoded 18s, 5.8 s and 26 s rRNAs, 16kDa heat shock proteins (hsp16–1 and 16–48) and a vacuolar ATPase G subunit. In addition, we also established that oxi-1, an oxidative stress-responsive gene we previously cloned, encodes a family of proteins related to human E6-AP ubiquitin-protein ligase. The similarity between human and nematode was 54% in one conserved amino acid region.