THE STRUCTURE AND CHROMOSOMAL LOCALIZATIO N OF THE HUMAN NEUROGRANIN GENE

A 12.5-kb DNA fragment containing the entire human neurogranin gene (h ng) was isolated from the genomic phage library using the human neurog ranin (hNG) cDNA as a probe. The gene consists of four exons and three introns. The first two exons include the nucleotide sequence that enc odes the complete 78-amino acid sequence of neurogranin. It is shown t hat the genome organization of hng is essentially similar to that of t he homologous rat neurogranin gene (rng). The hng gene has several pot ential transcription start sites, and the promoter region is character ized by the absence of the CCAAT and TATA boxes in the proximal region upstream from the transcription start sites. The 5'-flanking region o f hng has a domain with multiple AT-rich motifs, which is similar to t he region present nearly at the same position in the promoter of rng. It was shown by fluorescence in situ hybridization that hng is located on chromosome 11 in the region 11q23.3-q24.1.