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Figure 2. Amino acid alignments of lizard amelogenin with other amelogenin sequences. (A) Alignment of tetrapod amelogenin sequences. (top to bottom) The putative ancestral amelogenin sequence in mammals (from Delgado et al., 2005a); crocodile, Paleosuchus palpebrosus (GenBank access number, AF118568); ratsnake, Elaphe quadrivirgata (AF095568); lizard, Chalcides viridanus (present work); and three lissamphibians—the pipid frog, Xenopus laevis A, X. laevis B (AF095569; AF095570), and the bullfrog Rana pipiens (from Wang et al., 2005). Amino acid alignment is easy in the N- and C-ter regions, while it is difficult in the central region of exon 6 (in gray), due to numerous amino acid substitutions. Boxed = TRAP proteolytic sites; underlined = remarkable amino acids; 2|3 = limit between exon 2 and exon 3. LRAP = locus of intra-exonic alternative splicing in mammals. (-) = identical amino acid; (*) = either lack or insertion of amino acid. (B–E) Amino acid alignment of the amelogenin sequence of Chalcides viridanus with the snake, crocodile, ancestral mammal, and lissamphibian sequences taken separately. Alignment of the variable region (in gray) is still difficult to obtain, even between the closest species, lizard and snake (B).
