Molecular cloning of two cDNAs from the head of the nurse honey bee (Apis melliferaL.) for coding related proteins of royal jelly

SUMMARYTwo cDNA clones designated pRJP57–1 and pRJP57–2 which code for related polypeptides of major royal jelly protein were identified from the λUni-ZAP XR library of nurse honey bee head cDNA. The nucleotide sequences of the cDNA inserts show a 70.2% identity. From the open reading frames of pRJP57–1 and pRJP57–2 the amino acid sequences for polypeptides of 467 and 464 amino acid residues were derived, showing an identity of 56.6%. No significant homology with hitherto known proteins was observed. Both proteins contain N-glycosylation sites, phosphorylation sites for three types of protein kinases and almost identical signal peptides. Northern analysis showed that total mRNA contains a high proportion of RJP57–1 and RJP57–2 mRNAs (8% and 2% respectively).