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Conservation of δ-crystallin gene structure between ducks and chickens

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Summary

A cloned chicken δ-crystallin cDNA was used to identify two putative δ-crystallin genes in the duck by Southern blot hybridization. A DNA fragment containing most of one of these genes was isolated from a library made in bacteriophage λ Charon 28A containing genomic DNA from 14-day-old embryonic ducks. Electron microscopy, partial gene sequencing, primer extension analysis using duck mRNA, and comparison with the well-characterized chicken δ-crystallin genes suggest that our cloned duck δ-crystallin gene, like the chicken δ-crystallin genes, is 8–10 kb long and contains 17 exons. Hybridization and sequencing data show great similarity between the homologous 5′ untraslated and coding exons of the duck and chicken δ-crystallin genes. Overall, the homologous introns also appear to have approximately 30% sequence similarity, and have been subject to deletion/insertion events. Our partial characterization of duck δ-crystallin gene sequences suggests that this avian and reptilian crystallin family has been conserved during evolution, as have the other crystallin gene families that are expressed in the eye lens.

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  1. Raymond E. Jones

    Present address: Merek, Sharpe and Dohme, 19486, Westpoint, Pennsylvania, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular and Developmental Biology, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, 20892, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Joram Piatigorsky, Barbara Norman & Raymond E. Jones

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  1. Joram Piatigorsky
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  2. Barbara Norman
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  3. Raymond E. Jones
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Piatigorsky, J., Norman, B. & Jones, R.E. Conservation of δ-crystallin gene structure between ducks and chickens. J Mol Evol 25, 308–317 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02603115

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02603115

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