title: Isolation and characterization of a rat delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase processed pseudogene.
abstract: Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA from different strains of rat indicated that there were multiple copies of the gene encoding the second enzyme of the heme biosynthetic pathway, delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase (ALA-D). Two types of genomic clones were isolated from a Sprague-Dawley rat library. One appears to be the expressed gene, whereas the nucleotide sequence of the other suggests that it contains an ALA-D processed pseudogene because (1) there are no introns, (2) there are multiple mutations that alter the predicted amino acid sequence of ALA-D and cause premature termination, (3) there is a 3' polyadenylated tract, and (4) there is an 8-bp direct repeat flanking the gene. The rat genome is unusual in this respect since ALA-D pseudogenes have not been detected in Southern blot analyses of other mammals, including human, gorilla, chimpanzee, orangutan, rabbit, mouse, and Chinese hamster.
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205.
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.forename: L P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Frelin
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Boyer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D011061:Poly A; D000623:Porphobilinogen Synthase / Q000235:genetics*; D011544:Pseudogenes; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D015183:Restriction Mapping
chemical_list: D011061:Poly A; D000623:Porphobilinogen Synthase