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：1981
卷号：78
期号：6
页码：3521-3525
DOI：10.1073/pnas.78.6.3521
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：We have determined the sequences of the recombinant DNA inserts of three bacterial plasmid cDNA clones containing most of the rat alpha a-fetoprotein mRNA. The resultant nucleotide sequence of alpha-fetoprotein was exhaustively compared to the nucleotide sequence of the mRNA encoding rat serum albumin. These two mRNAs have extensive homology (50%) throughout and the same intron locations. The amino acid sequence of rat alpha-fetoprotein has been deduced from the nucleotide sequence, and its comparison to rat serum albumin's amino acid sequence reveals a 34% homology. The regularly spaced positions of the cysteines found in serum albumin are conserved in rat alpha-fetoprotein, indicating that these two proteins may have a similar secondary folding structure. These homologies indicate that alpha-fetoprotein and serum albumin were derived by duplication of a common ancestral gene and constitute a gene family.
