[Molecular cloning of rat OB gene and its expression in Escherichia coli]

In order to provide rat OB gene product for studying the relationship between obesity and noninfectious diseases, rat OB cDNA was amplified by RT-PCR technique. 460 bp fragment of OB cDNA was subcloned into EcoRI/BamHI site of plasmid pUC 19. Sequence analysis of OB cDNA revealed that the translation reading frame was identical with that reported in the literature. Thereby plasmid pBV220-rOB was constructed and the specific expression of OB gene in E. coli identified by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis was obtained.