Characterization of a polymorphism in the 3' part of the chicken vitellogenin gene.
An allele giving rise to a polymorphism within the 3' part of the chicken vitellogenin gene was cloned, sequenced, and compared to the previously cloned allele. The polymorphism is formed by a perfect copy of 343 bp from intron 32 in tandem array with a perfect copy of 244 bp from intron 33; this 587-bp element is inserted in a head-to-tail arrangement in intron 33. We propose a mechanism in which an unequal crossing-over resulted in a vitellogenin gene with two exons 33, one of which was subsequently deleted. Thus, intron 33 was enlarged by the tandem repeats without affecting the protein-encoding sequence of the gene. At the boundaries of the repeated elements, two short direct repeats are found that resemble the recombination signals of immunoglobulin genes. They may have had a key role in the formation of the new allele.
Philipsen
J N
JN
Laboratory of Biochemistry, Groningen, The Netherlands.
de Vries
J E
JE
Samallo
J
J
van Dijk
C
C
Arnberg
A C
AC
AB
G
G
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics*; D005796:Genes; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014819:Vitellogenins / Q000235:genetics*
D014819:Vitellogenins