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Abstract
The Smad family of proteins have been implicated as major components of the TGF g signalling pathway and are important mediators of its pleiotrophic effects. Here we describe the cloning and characterization of the mink ( Mustela vison ) ortholog of Smad4. Mink Smad4 has a high level of conservation to its human counterpart showing 96% homology at the DNA level and 99% at the amino acid level. This is in agreement with the close homologies seen for the rat and mouse orthologs. In vitro transcription and translation shows the expression of a protein of predicted molecular weight, of identical size to its human counterpart.