ANALYSIS OF THE BETA-GLOBIN GENE FAMILY OF CARP

Five carp beta-globin genes, Nos. 1 beta, 4 beta, 5 beta, 6 beta, and 7 beta, were found to be linked with their respectively numbered and p reviously described alpha-globin genes, Nos. 1 alpha, 4 alpha, 5 alpha , 6 alpha, and 7 alpha, in a head-to-head manner. The structure of all five carp beta-globin genes were found to be analogous to those of kn own vertebrate globin genes, i.e., they possess three exons, two inter vening sequences (IVS), a sequence that corresponds to the consensus o f a SP1 binding site, a CCAAT box, an ATA box, and a polyA signal. The five beta-globin genes each included three open reading frames consis ting of 444 base pairs encoding 148 amino acid residues. The deduced a mino acid sequences of the five beta-globin genes were highly conserve d, and were highly homologous with that of the known carp beta-globin gene No. 3 (>95.3% similarities). This is the first report of six glob in genes from an individual fish that have similar nucleotide sequence s.