Sequence homology between RNAs encoding rat α-fetoprotein and rat serum albumin
Abstract
We have determined the sequences of the recombinant DNA inserts of three bacterial plasmid cDNA clones containing most of the rat α-fetoprotein mRNA. The resultant nucleotide sequence of α-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 α-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 α-fetoprotein, indicating that these two proteins may have a similar secondary folding structure. These homologies indicate that α-fetoprotein and serum albumin were derived by duplication of a common ancestral gene and constitute a gene family.
Additional Information
© 1981 by the National Academy of Sciences. Contributed by James F. Bonner, March 17, 1981. We thank Barbara Hough-Evans for helpful suggestions in the preparation of this manuscript. This work was supported in part by Grants 5 T32 GM 07616, and GM 13762, awarded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact.Files
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- Eprint ID
- 7767
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- CaltechAUTHORS:JAGpnas81
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2007-07-31Created from EPrint's datestamp field
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field