Common Amino Acid Sequences Deduced from Coding Exons of the Porcine FGF4 Gene in Two Breeds and Production of the Encoded Protein in Escherichia coli

Fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGF4) is considered a crucial gene in the development of mammalian embryos. Here we identified common amino acid sequences predicted from coding exons of the FGF4 gene in five pigs of two breeds, and HispFGF4, a 6× histidine-tagged porcine FGF4, was produced in Escherichia coli. HispFGF4 was purified efficiently from the supernatant of cell lysate by heparin column chromatography. In a porcine embryonic fibroblast cell line, HispFGF4 showed significant mitogenic activities at concentrations as low as 0.001 nM (p