Metaxin 3 (MTX3)

The zebrafish metaxin 3 (ZMTX3) cDNA codes for a protein of 313 amino acids, while the ZMTX1 and ZMTX2 cDNAs specify proteins of 317 residues and 274 residues, respectively. Alignment of the ZMTX3 and ZMTX1 amino acid sequences revealed 40% identities, while 26% identities were found for the ZMTX3/ZMTX2 alignment. A phylogenetic tree showed that the metaxins share a common ancestry, with the grouping of the zebrafish sequences with the homologous human and mouse sequences. In addition, regions of alpha helix were seen to be the predominant feature of zebrafish metaxin secondary structure, particularly for ZMTX2 and ZMTX3. The ZMTX3 cDNA sequence has the greatest homology to a human sequence at cytogenetic location 5q14.1, close to the thrombospondin 4 gene (THBS4). Also, the mouse metaxin 3 homologue is adjacent to Thbs4 at 13C3.