Cloning and Sequencing of porcine interleukin-6 gene from lymphocyte

Porcine interleukin 6 cDNA was synthesized by RT PCR from mRNA extracted from blood lymphocytes of meishan and landrance hybride pig, which were stimulated by 10×10 -6 g/mL ConA in vitro. The porcine interleukin 6 cDNA from lymphocyte was then subcloned into pUC18 vector and was named as pUPIL 6. The sequence of cloned porcine interleukin 6 cDNA was determined. The length of the IL 6 gene was 741 bp, encoding a peptide of 212 amino acids whose molecular weight is 24 kD and pI is 5.50 . The signal sequence of peptides is from 46 to129 bp and the mature peptides from 130 to 681 bp. By blasting the homologous sequences in genbank databases, the sequence of porcine interleukin 6 cDNA from lymphocyte is homologous to the previously cloned porcine interleukin 6 cDNA from spleen cell and fibroblast cell. The sequence of pig IL 6 gene from lymphocyte was submitted to GenBank and registered as AF309651.