Molecular Cloning, Characterization and Expression Analysis of Macrohage-Colony Stimulating Factor 2 Gene from Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus)

Macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1/M-CSF) is a key factor for the differentiation, growth and survival of monocytes/macrophages and osteoclasts. The functions of M-CSF have been well characterized in mammals. In this study, we have cloned and sequenced the cDNA of M-CSF2 in grass carp. The grass carp M-CSF2 cDNA was 1487 bp in length, containing an open reading frame of 855 bp that encodes 284 amino acids. The deduced protein of grass carp M-CSF2 possessed same domains similar to its mammalian counterparts. Multiple alignments and phylogenetic tree indicate that the grass carp M-CSF2 exhibits close evolutionary relationship with its counterparts in other teleosts. Lastly, the tissue distribution results also showed that the grass carp M-CSF2 transcript was dominantly expressed in head kidney, kidney and spleen in vivo.