Characterization of the soluble guanylyl cyclase β-subunit gene in the mosquito Anopheles gambiae

Genomic DNA corresponding to the soluble guanylyl cyclase beta-subunit (GCS beta) gene was cloned and sequenced from Anopheles gambiae. The sequence was 8103 bp long and presumably included the entire coding region. The deduced amino acid sequence was 71% and 62% similar to previously known Drosophila and vertebrate GCS beta, white the C-terminus of A. gambiae GCS beta was shorter. Because of the conserved characteristics in each functional domain, the high G+C % in the third codon positions compared to the introns, the lack of internal stop codons, and the fact that we identified the gene from a cDNA, we conclude that this A. gambiae gene is functional. This is the first detailed description of a guanylyl cyclase gene structure (e.g. intron-exon boundaries). Interestingly, within the fifth intron we found high similarity to the flanking regions of the Pegasus-27 transposable element and other noncoding regions of the A. gambiae genome.