Abstract: MYST acetyltransferase widely exists in the eukaryon from yeast to human and it is now known to play a major role in the regulation of eukaryotic transcription. Based on the reported amino acid sequences of other organisms and the scaffold and EST sequences of the silkworm Bombyx mori L., the MYST acetyltransferase gene of the silkworm was obtained with silico cloning. The gene is 1 575 bp in length (GenBank accession number:  DQ442997), containing an ORF of 1 326 bp and no intron. The predicted protein consists of 442 amino acids with the molecular weight of 51.4 kD. It contains three conservative domains, i.e., MYST core domain, zinc finger and chromodomain, and has high similarity with homologous genes in other species. The RT-PCR experiment indicated that the gene was expressed in all tested tissues and stages of the silkworm. Prokaryotic expression of the gene recombinant with six-His tag and a Nus·Tag was successfully carried out through sub-cloning into pET50b vector.

Key words: Bombyx mori, MYST histone acetyltransferase, clone, sequence analysis, expression