Structure of the gene for uteroferrin.

Abstract

The published structure of the gene for uteroferrin differs from that of the human and mouse tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) genes. Polymerase chain reaction using genomic DNA as template and primers designed from exon 2 of the porcine uteroferrin gene amplified a product containing two previously undescribed introns. Because of these discrepancies, we cloned an EcoRI fragment from a porcine genomic BAC library containing the uteroferrin gene, and the region containing the uteroferrin gene was completely sequenced. The uteroferrin gene spanned 2.5 kb and contained five exons, which is similar to the structure previously reported for human and mouse TRAP genes but different from the published structure of the uteroferrin gene. Southern blotting of porcine genomic DNA digested with a variety of enzymes was consistent with the sequence that we obtained. The most likely explanation for the differing results is that the previously reported structure for the uteroferrin gene was the result of artifactual elimination of introns 2 and 3 by bacteria and artifactual recombination of the region upstream of the transcription start site of this gene.