Fig. 1. The cPouV gene encodes a chicken PouV protein. (A) Alignment of D. rerio Pou2 (NP_571187), X. laevis Pou91 (AAA49999.1), M. musculus Oct4 (Pou5f1, NP_038661) and H. sapiens OCT4 (POU5F1, NP_002692) PouV proteins with the chicken PouV coding sequence (DQ867024) using NTi Clustal software (Invitrogen). (B,C) Similarity table analysis of the full-length proteins (B) or of their homeodomains (C) of Oct4 homologues was performed with sequences of 360 aa for B. taurus (Bt) Oct4 (NP_777005), of 360 aa for Sus scrofa (Ss) Oct4 (Q9TSV5), of 360 aa for H. sapiens (Hs) OCT4 (NP_002692), of 360 aa for P. troglodytes (Pt) Oct4 (Q7YR49), of 352 aa for M. musculus (Mm) Oct4 (NP_038661), of 189 aa for T. vulpecula (Tv) Oct4 (AAQ24229), of 472 aa for D. rerio (Dr) Pou2 (NP_571187), of 448 aa for X. laevis (Xl) Pou25 (AAA49996), of 445 aa for X. laevis Pou91 (AAA49999) and of 426 aa for X. laevis Pou60 (AAA49997). The 295 aa were used for the G. gallus (Gg) PouV protein (DQ867024). (D) Similarity table analysis of Nkx and Nanog families performed with sequences of 344 aa for G. gallus (Gg) Nkx2.1 (NP_989947), of 354 aa for M. musculus (Mm) Nkx2.4 (NP_075993), of 323 aa for G. gallus Nkx2.3 (CAA66257), of 362 aa for M. musculus Nkx2.3 (NP_032725), of 294 aa for G. gallus Nkx2.5 (NP_990495), of 299 aa for X. laevis (Xl) Nkx2.5 (AAA19861), of 324 aa for H. sapiens (Hs) NKX2.5 (NP_004378), of 318 aa for M. musculus Nkx2.5 (NP_032726), of 216 aa for M. musculus Nkx2.6 (NP_035050), of 305 aa for M. musculus Nanog (BAC76998), of 312 aa for R. rattus (Rr) Nanog (XP_575662), of 305 aa for H. sapiens NANOG (NP_079141), of 232 aa for H. sapiens (Hs-2) NANOG2 (AAS57555), of 273 aa for H. sapiens NKX2.2 (NP_002500) and of 273 aa for M. musculus Nkx2.2 (NP_035049). The 310 aa were used for the chicken Nanog protein (DQ 867025). Red text and yellow highlights indicate a complete aa conservation between tested species; blue text and blue highlights indicate partial conservation between tested species.