MOLECULAR-CLONING OF A MAMMALIAN ABC TRANSPORTER HOMOLOGOUS TO DROSOPHILA WHITE GENE

Pigmentation of Drosophila eyes requires the concerted action of sever al genes, most of which have been cloned and characterized. Three of t hem, white, brown, and scarlet, have been directly implicated in the i mport of pigment precursors into the cells. These three genes encode s imilar proteins, belonging to the evolutionary conserved family of ATP Binding Cassette transporters. The identification of a novel mouse ge ne, ABC8, closely related to white is reported here, together with an analysis of its expression profile and its comparative mapping in mous e and human genome.