期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1978
卷号：75
期号：12
页码：6187-6191
DOI：10.1073/pnas.75.12.6187
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：We have cloned and characterized a 9.7-kilobase EcoRI fragment of mouse DNA that contains an alpha-globin gene. The gene is encoded in at least three discontinous segments of DNA interrupted by two small intervening sequences that can be visualized as R-loop structures in the electron miscroscope. The size of the gene and its small intervening sequences fits well with the known size of the alpha-globin mRNA precursor, suggesting that these intervening sequences, like those of beta-globin, are transcribed. Partial sequence analysis indicates that the larger intervening sequence interrupts the alpha-globin gene at a site exactly corresponding to that interrupted by the larger intervening sequences in both the beta-globin major and minor genes. This observation suggests that these sequences were present when the alpha- and beta-globin genes diverged in early vertebrate evolution, more than 500 million years ago. Furthermore, though alpha and betamaj genes are encoded on different chromosomes, when their sequences are compared directly by visualization of heteroduplex structures, only one 150- to 200-base-pair segment of homology is recognized. These homologous sequences are located on the 3'-flanking segments of both genes, about 1.5 kilobases from each.
