Isolation and sequence of cDNA clones encoding rat phosphatidylinositol transfer protein

Phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) transfer protein is a cytosolic protein that catalyzes the transfer of PtdIns between membranes. It is expressed in organisms from yeast to man, and activity has been found in all animal tissues examined. Using antibodies prepared against bovine brain PtdIns transfer protein, lambda gt11 rat brain cDNA libraries were screened and several clones isolated. DNA sequence analysis showed that the cDNAs encoded a polypeptide of 271 amino acids with a mass of 31,911 Da. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence with N-terminal sequence data obtained for the intact purified bovine brain protein and rat lung phospholipid transfer protein verified that the cDNAs were PtdIns transfer protein clones. The predicted protein shows no significant sequence similarity to other known (phospholipid)-binding proteins. DNA blot hybridization suggests that the rat genome may contain more than one gene encoding PtdIns transfer protein. RNA blot hybridization reveals that the PtdIns transfer protein gene is expressed at low levels in a wide variety of rat tissues; all tissues examined showed a major mRNA component of 1.9 kilobases and a minor component of 3.4 kilobases. The isolation of clones encoding rat PtdIns transfer protein will greatly facilitate studies of the structure and function of PtdIns transfer proteins and their role in lipid metabolism.