Home LiteratureArticle Details
PMID: 2994002 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Structure of the mouse glial fibrillary acidic protein gene: implications for the evolution of the intermediate filament multigene family.

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 13 ·No. 15 ·1985-08-12 ·Pages 5527-43

Balcarek JM, Cowan NJ

Abstract

We report the complete sequence of the gene encoding mouse glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), the intermediate filament (IF) protein specific to astrocytes. The 9.8 kb gene includes nine exons separated by introns ranging in size from 0.2 to 2.5 kb. A comparison of the organization of the GFAP gene with that of genes encoding other IF proteins reveals that the structure of IF genes is highly conserved in spite of considerable divergence at the amino acid level. Thus, most of the evolutionary events leading to the placement of introns in IF genes must have occurred prior to the duplication and subsequent divergence of IF genes from a presumptive common ancestral sequence. The conserved gene organization is unrelated to structural features of IF proteins. A curious feature of the GFAP gene is the large number of repeated sequences found in the introns. Six tracts of reiterated di- or trinucleotides are present, plus tandem repeats of two different novel sequences. One repeat is unique to the GFAP gene; the other occurs elsewhere in the mouse genome, although at relatively low frequency.

MeSH Terms
Animals Base Sequence Biological Evolution DNA/genetics DNA Restriction Enzymes DNA, Recombinant Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein/genetics Intermediate Filament Proteins/genetics Mice Nucleic Acid Hybridization Operon Protein Conformation RNA Caps/genetics Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
Chemicals
DNA, Recombinant Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Intermediate Filament Proteins RNA Caps DNA DNA Restriction Enzymes
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Balcarek J M
Cowan N J
References (34)
34 references, click to expand
  1. Type I and type II keratins have evolved from lower eukaryotes to form the epidermal intermediate filaments in mammalian skin.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Oct;80(19):5857-61 PMID: 6193525
  2. Molecular biology. CACA sequences - the ends and the means?
    Nature. 1983 Sep 8-14;305(5930):101-2 PMID: 6888554
  3. The structure of the vimentin gene.
    Cell. 1983 Nov;35(1):215-23 PMID: 6194898
  4. A convenient and adaptable package of computer programs for DNA and protein sequence management, analysis and homology determination.
    Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Jan 11;12(1 Pt 2):643-55 PMID: 6320100
  5. Brain-specific genes have identifier sequences in their introns.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Feb;81(3):713-7 PMID: 6583673
  6. Sequence of a cDNA clone encoding mouse glial fibrillary acidic protein: structural conservation of intermediate filaments.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 May;81(9):2743-6 PMID: 6585825
  7. The amino acid sequence of chicken muscle desmin provides a common structural model for intermediate filament proteins.
    EMBO J. 1982;1(12):1649-56 PMID: 6202512
  8. JC virus enhancer-promoter active in human brain cells.
    Science. 1984 Dec 14;226(4680):1337-9 PMID: 6095453
  9. Remarkable conservation of structure among intermediate filament genes.
    Cell. 1984 Dec;39(3 Pt 2):491-8 PMID: 6210150
  10. Genetics, evolution, and expression of the 68,000-mol-wt neurofilament protein: isolation of a cloned cDNA probe.
    J Cell Biol. 1985 Mar;100(3):843-50 PMID: 3919033
  11. Complete sequence of a gene encoding a human type I keratin: sequences homologous to enhancer elements in the regulatory region of the gene.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Mar;82(6):1609-13 PMID: 2580298
  12. Homology between the KpnI primate and BamH1 (M1F-1) rodent families of long interspersed repeated sequences.
    Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Aug 25;11(16):5739-45 PMID: 6310511
  13. Localization of the glial fibrillary acidic protein in astrocytes by immunofluorescence.
    Brain Res. 1972 Aug 25;43(2):429-35 PMID: 4559710
  14. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis.
    J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503-17 PMID: 1195397
  15. Labeling deoxyribonucleic acid to high specific activity in vitro by nick translation with DNA polymerase I.
    J Mol Biol. 1977 Jun 15;113(1):237-51 PMID: 881736
  16. Why genes in pieces?
    Nature. 1978 Feb 9;271(5645):501 PMID: 622185
  17. Characterization of globin domains: heme binding to the central exon product.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Mar;77(3):1384-8 PMID: 6929492
  18. A new computer method for the storage and manipulation of DNA gel reading data.
    Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 Aug 25;8(16):3673-94 PMID: 7433103
  19. Human fetal G gamma- and A gamma-globin genes: complete nucleotide sequences suggest that DNA can be exchanged between these duplicated genes.
    Cell. 1980 Oct;21(3):627-38 PMID: 7438203
  20. Genes pieced together--exons delineate homologous structures of diverged lysozymes.
    Nature. 1981 Mar 26;290(5804):287-8 PMID: 7207621
  21. Cloning in single-stranded bacteriophage as an aid to rapid DNA sequencing.
    J Mol Biol. 1980 Oct 25;143(2):161-78 PMID: 6260957
  22. Shotgun DNA sequencing using cloned DNase I-generated fragments.
    Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Jul 10;9(13):3015-27 PMID: 6269069
  23. Related amino acid sequences in neurofilaments and non-neural intermediate filaments.
    Nature. 1982 Apr 1;296(5856):448-50 PMID: 7199625
  24. A catalogue of splice junction sequences.
    Nucleic Acids Res. 1982 Jan 22;10(2):459-72 PMID: 7063411
  25. Potential Z-DNA forming sequences are highly dispersed in the human genome.
    Nature. 1982 Jul 22;298(5872):396-8 PMID: 6283389
  26. Intermediate filaments: a chemically heterogeneous, developmentally regulated class of proteins.
    Annu Rev Biochem. 1982;51:219-50 PMID: 6180679
  27. Repetitive sequences in eukaryotic DNA and their expression.
    Annu Rev Biochem. 1982;51:813-44 PMID: 7051966
  28. "Nonrandom" DNA sequence analysis in bacteriophage M13 by the dideoxy chain-termination method.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Jul;79(14):4298-302 PMID: 6956859
  29. A novel repeated element with Z-DNA-forming potential is widely found in evolutionarily diverse eukaryotic genomes.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Nov;79(21):6465-9 PMID: 6755470
  30. The sequence (dC-dA)n X (dG-dT)n forms left-handed Z-DNA in negatively supercoiled plasmids.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Apr;80(7):1821-5 PMID: 6572943
  31. Identification of two human beta-tubulin isotypes.
    Mol Cell Biol. 1983 May;3(5):854-62 PMID: 6865944
  32. Unusual class of Alu sequences containing a potential Z-DNA segment.
    Mol Cell Biol. 1983 May;3(5):960-4 PMID: 6865948
  33. Buffer gradient gels and 35S label as an aid to rapid DNA sequence determination.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jul;80(13):3963-5 PMID: 6575390
  34. Unraveling the structure of the intermediate filaments.
    Cell. 1983 Sep;34(2):332-4 PMID: 6352049
Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
0305-1048
DOI
10.1093/nar/13.15.5527
Published
1985-08-12
Pages
5527-43
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC321888
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
X02801
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/13.15.5527 PMC Full Text View journal details
Analysis Services
Analysis Services

Contact

No. 2 Wenbo Road, Zhangqiu District, Jinan, Shandong

Qilu Normal University · Genelibs Bioinformatics Lab

750 Shunhua Rd, Jinan

2F, Bldg F, University Science Park

Tel: 0531-88819269

WeChat Official Account

Follow our WeChat subscription account for real-time updates and the latest in medical and biological research.


Business Email

E-mail: [email protected]

Copyright © 2026.Genelibs Jinan Honghui Biotechnology Co., Ltd. 鲁ICP备20007159号-2