RGD Reference Report - Sequence homology between RNAs encoding rat alpha-fetoprotein and rat serum albumin. - Rat Genome Database

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Sequence homology between RNAs encoding rat alpha-fetoprotein and rat serum albumin.

Authors: Jagodzinski, LL  Sargent, TD  Yang, M  Glackin, C  Bonner, J 
Citation: Jagodzinski LL, etal., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1981 Jun;78(6):3521-5.
RGD ID: 1298573
Pubmed: PMID:6167988   (View Abstract at PubMed)
PMCID: PMC319601   (View Article at PubMed Central)

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.

Objects referenced in this article
Gene Afp alpha-fetoprotein Rattus norvegicus

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