Abstract：With specific primers,13 chicken β-defensin Gallinacin-1（Gal-1）～Gallinacin-13(Gal-13) cDNA fragments, which from Hu-xu chicken strains, were amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). And they all coded the full-length open reading frame,except Gal-3. After sequenced, 13 cDNA fragments were identified and submited to Genbank, and received 13 accession numbers: DQ858311~ DQ858323. It was found that the 13 chicken β-defensin genes had similarities ranging from 96.5％to 100% at amino acid level.When compared with β-defensin genes sequence in Genbank. Analysis by Clustalx revealed that Gal-1、Gal -1(a) and Gal -3 lie at the same embranchment; Gal-4, Gal-5, and Gal-8 lie at the same other one; and Gal-2 ,Gal-12 and Gal-13 lie at the same; Gal-6 and 7 lie at the same ;Gal-11 is the embranchment independently. Differential mRNA expression of genes in different tissues by RT-PCR had been shown that Gal-1, Gal-2, Gal-4,Gal-5,Gal-6,Gal-7 and Gal-10 are widely expressed in tissues; Gal-3,Gal-8,Gal-11,Gal-12 and Gal-13 have tissue specific expression.
