THE TURKEY PROLACTIN-ENCODING GENE AND ITS REGULATORY REGION

Overlapping prolactin (Prl) lambda clones were isolated from a turkey genomic library, The 6.7-kb turkey Prl gene consists of five exons, Ma jor transcription start points were located by primer extension 51-53 nucleotides upstream from the Met start codon, No estrogen response el ement (ERE) was found, but two regions similar to mammalian Pit-1/GHF- 1-binding sites were identified by computer analysis, This suggests th at transcription of the turkey Prl gene may be regulated by Pit-1/GHF- 1, and not by the estrogen receptor.