Characterization of mouse peroxiredoxin I genomic DNA and its expression

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are a newly defined family of anti-oxidant proteins that have been implicated, via their anti-oxidant activity, in a number of cellular functions, including cell proliferation and differentiation, protection of other proteins from oxidative damage, and intracellular signaling. We isolated genomic DNA sequences of the Prx I genes from the mouse, and characterized their molecular genetic features. Prx I was found to form a small gene family with two and three members; one functional and two pseudogenes. The Prx I-1 gene has splice donor/acceptor site sequences and five or six exons, whereas the Prx I-2 clone has several structural features characteristic of a typical retroposon found to have ORF sequences. We analyzed the expression of pseudogenes, which were not expressed on the transcription levels in the investigated organs. The functional copy of the Prx I-1 gene was expressed abundantly in liver and kidney of the adult, as well as in early developing embryos. This report, together with amino acid/nucleotide sequence similarity between human and mice, provides a basis for speculating on an even earlier event in the evolution of the Prx I gene family, i.e. the Prx I gene was well conserved in human and mice via its anti-oxidant activity.