title: Structure and expression of the chicken ferritin H-subunit gene.
abstract: Although the genomes of many species contain multiple copies of ferritin heavy (H)- and light (L)-chain sequences, the chicken genome contains only a single copy of the H-subunit gene. The primary transcription unit of this gene is 4.6 kilobase pairs and contains four exons which are posttranscriptionally spliced to generate a mature transcript of 869 nucleotides. Chicken and human ferritin H-subunit genomic loci are organized with similar exon-intron boundaries. They exhibit approximately 85% nucleotide identity in coding regions, which yield proteins 93% identical in amino acid sequence. We have identified a sequence of 22 highly conserved nucleotides in the 5' untranslated sequences of chicken, human, and tadpole ferritin H-subunit genes and propose that this conserved sequence may regulate iron-modulated translation of ferritin H-subunit mRNAs.
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002645:Chickens; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D005293:Ferritins / Q000235:genetics*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005796:Genes; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D005810:Multigene Family; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D004247:DNA; D005293:Ferritins