Abstract
We have previously reported on calcium transport mechanisms in American lobster, Homarus americanus, using (45)Ca(2+) coupled with vesicle preparations of hepatopancreatic endoplasmic reticulum. The active transport of calcium across membranes bordering calcium-sequestering stores such as sarcoplasmic or endoplasmic reticulum is catalyzed by membrane-spanning proteins, the sarco-endoplasmic Ca(2+)-ATPases (SERCAs). In the study described here we used advanced bioinformatics and molecular techniques to clone SERCA from the economically important Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus. We report the complete cloning of a full-length SERCA from P. argus antenna cDNA (GenBank accession number AY702617). This cDNA has a 1020-amino acid residue open reading frame which is 90% identical to published sequences of other crustacean SERCA proteins. Our data support the hypothesis that one crustacean and three vertebrate genes controlling calcium transport were derived from a common ancestral gene.