Abstract:Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) is a recently discovered uncoupling protein, which possesses various biological activities. For example, UCP2 has the ability to inhibit the excessive generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species in certain cells, such as immune cells. In our research, we designed primers for RT-PCR, and obtained the core sequence in the cDNA of UCP2 from Tupaia belangeri. This core sequence was 750 bp, encoding 248 amino acids. After structure-function analysis, we found that the fragment composed of these amino acids possessed two mitochondrial carrier protein motifs, five potential transmembrane α-helix domains, one purine-nucleotide binding domain (PNBD) and three UCP-specific sequences. When comparing the amino acid sequence of UCP2 from T.belangeri with that from Equus caballus, Mus musculus, Canis lupus familiaris, Homo sapiens, Rattus norvegicus, Cavia porcellus, Pongo abelii, Phodopus sungorus, or Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, we founded that it shared over 90% identity with others. At the same time, we built the phylogenetic tree of UCP2 through MEGA5 to explore its characteristics of molecular evolution.