ISOLATION AND GENOMIC CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TUPLE1 HIRA GENE OF THEPUFFERFISH FUGU RUBRIPES/

In an effort to obtain a small genomic construct for the generation of a HIRA transgenic mouse, we have isolated and sequenced the Fugu TUPL E1/HIRA gene. We have compared the gene organization and the proteins encoded in pufferfish and human and also searched for conserved DNA se quences that might be important in gene regulation. The pufferfish gen e spans approx. 9 kb, which is approx. 11 times smaller than the human gene, owing to the reduced size of the introns. Like its human counte rpart, it is organized into 25 exons. The majority of the splice sites are :in identical positions to those found in the human gene, however , for three internal exons the positions of the splice sites are not d irectly comparable. The coding regions are almost identical in size an d show a high degree of similarity, especially at the amino and carbox y termini. Comparisons of 5' and 3' sequences failed to detect similar ities or sequences involved in regulation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B .V.