ABSTRACT
CYP1C is the newest member of the CYP1 family of P450s; however, its physiological significance, inducers, and metabolic functions are unknown. In this study, a new complementary DNA of the CYP1C subfamily encoding CYP1C1 was isolated from Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) liver after intracoelomic injection with benzo-a-pyrene (BaP). The full-length cDNA was 2223 base pair (bp) long and contained an open reading frame of 1581 bp encoding a protein of 526 amino acids and a stop codon. The sequence exhibited 3' non-coding region of 642 bp. The deduced amino acid sequence of O. niloticus CYP1C1 shows similarities of 86, 82.5, 79.7, 78.7, 77.8, 75.5, 69.6 and 61.3% with scup CYP1C1, killifish CYP1C1,1C2, Japanese eel CYP1C1, zebra fish CYP1C1, common carp CYP1C1, scup CYP1C2, common carp CYP1C2 and zebra fish CYP1C2, respectively. Phylogenetic tree based on the amino acids sequences clearly shows tilapia CYP1C1 and scup CYP1C1 to be more closely related to each other than to CYP1C genes from other species. Furthermore, for measuring BaP induction of CYP1C1 mRNA in different organs of tilapia (O. niloticus), ß-actin gene as internal control was selected based on previous studies to assess their expression variability. Real time RCR results revealed that there was a large increase in CYP1C1 mRNA in liver (43.1), intestine (5.1) and muscle (2.4).
