Analyses of Conservative Sequences of Five SOX Genes in Panthera Tigris

The SOX genes of Panthera tigris altaica Temminck were detected by a pair of degenerate primers, which were special to the SOX gene family within the HMG-box. With the genomic DNA as template, one specific band was observed with the length of 220 bp. Five fragments of DNA were found and their identities to the SRY of human were 75%, 56%, 51%, 67% and 48%, respectively; to the Sry of mouse were 73%, 54%, 57%, 66% and 48%, respectively. The genes with the maximum similarity to these five fragments were H-SOX3, H-SOX4, H-SOX11, H-SOX21 and H-SOX22. So, these five DNA fragments are part of Sox genes of Panthera tigris altaica, and were named as PtSox3,PtSox4,PtSox11, PtSox21 and PtSox22 according to the general nomenclature.