Rapid sequencing of rabbit aromatase cDNA using RACE PCR

The sequencing of aromatase cDNA from rabbit granulosa cells was obtained by RACE PCR. This cDNA is 2.9 kb long. The first 119 nucleotides correspond to the first untranslated exon. Nucleotides 120 to 1,629 correspond to the coding region (1,509 nucleotides) and the rest of the sequence is non coding and contains a polyadenylation signal. Translation of the cDNA sequence indicates that the protein is composed of 503 amino acids, like in human aromatase. Its molecular weight is 57.4 kDa. The alignment between the rabbit aromatase amino acid sequence and other aromatases already described in the human, mouse, rat, cow, pig, chicken, rainbow trout and teleost fish shows that the rabbit protein exhibits the highest homology with the human one (85%).