biomolecules Article MRAP2 Interaction with Melanocortin-4 Receptor in SnakeHead (Channa argus) Zheng-Yong Wen 1,2,3,*,† , Ting Liu 4,† , Chuan-Jie Qin 1,2, Yuan-Chao Zou 1,2, Jun Wang 1,2, Rui Li 1,2 and Ya-Xiong Tao 4,* 1 Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province for Fish Conservation and Utilization in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River, Neijiang Normal University, Neijiang 641100, China;
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[email protected] (R.L.) 2 College of Life Science, Neijiang Normal University, Neijiang 641100, China 3 BGI Education Center, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518083, China 4 Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA;
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[email protected] (Y.-X.T.); Tel.: +86-18582681220 (Z.-Y.W.); +1-3348445396 (Y.-X.T.) † These authors contributed equally. Abstract: The melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) plays an important role in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure. Melanocortin-2 receptor accessory protein 2 (MRAP2) modulates trafficking, ligand binding, and signaling of MC4R. The Northern snakehead (Channa argus) is an economically important freshwater fish native to East Asia. To explore potential interaction between snakehead MC4R and MRAP2, herein we cloned snakehead mc4r and mrap2. The snakehead mc4r consisted of a 984 bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 327 amino acids, while snakehead Citation: Wen, Z.-Y.; Liu, T.; Qin, mrap2 contained a 693 bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 230 amino acids.