Molecular characterisation, evolution and expression of hypoxia-inducible factor in Aurelia sp.1

The maintenance of physiological oxygen homeostasis is mediated by hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), a key transcriptional factor of the PHD-HIF system in all metazoans. However, the molecular evolutionary origin of this central physiological regulatory system is not well characterized. As the earliest eumetazoans, Cnidarians can be served as an interesting model for exploring the HIF system from an evolutionary perspective. We identified the complete cDNA sequence of HIF-1α (ASHIF) from the Aurelia sp.1, and the predicted HIF-1α protein (pASHIF) was comprised of 674 amino acids originating from 2,025 bp nucleotides. A Pairwise comparison revealed that pASHIF not only possessed conserved basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) and Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS) domains but also contained the oxygen dependent degradation (ODD) and the C-terminal transactivation domains (C-TAD), the key domains for hypoxia regulation. As indicated by sequence analysis, the ASHIF gene contains 8 exons interrupted by 7 introns. Western blot analysis indicated that pASHIF that existed in the polyps and medusa of Aurelia. sp.1 was more stable for a hypoxic response than normoxia.