Intermediate filaments are part of the cytoskeleton of most cells. To analyze changes in intermediate filament synthesis, we have isolated two
cDNA clones (pV-C25, pV-C877) that cover the complete coding sequence of the murine intermediate filament
protein vimentin. The
cDNA clones were isolated from a murine Engelbreth-Holm-Swan (
EHS) tumor cDNA library by screening under (i) non-stringent conditions with a synthetic
oligodeoxynucleotide (oligo), LW-36, which is specific for
type-IV collagen, and (ii) stringent conditions with oligo LW75, which was derived from the
vimentin clone pV-C25. The
cDNA clones contain 38
nucleotides (nt) of the 5'-untranslated region, 1398 nt of the coding region and 7 nt of the 3'-untranslated region. Comparing the mouse sequence with the published sequence for
vimentin from hamster, human and chicken, we find shared identities of 99, 97 and 87%, respectively. Since the
cDNA clones have been isolated from a basement membrane
tumor (EHS) cDNA library, we measured the
vimentin mRNA production in
EHS tumor cells in culture, and found that this
mRNA is half as abundant as
mRNA for type-IV
mRNA.