Organization of the mouse microfibril-associated glycoprotein-2 (MAGP-2) gene

A 1.4-kb EST clone encoding mouse microfibril-associated glycoprotein-2 (MA GP-2), identified by its similarity with the reported human cDNA, was used to screen a mouse 129 genomic bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library . The mouse gene contains 10 exons spanning 16 kb, located on the distal re gion of Chromosome (Chr) 6. The exons range in size from 24 to 963 bp, with the ATG located in exon 2. The tenth and largest exon contains 817 bp of 3 ' untranslated sequence, including a B2 repetitive element. Northern analys is demonstrates abundant expression of MAGP-2 mRNA in skeletal muscle, lung , and heart. Sequence analysis of additional cDNA clones suggests that the two mRNA forms of MAGP-2 in the mouse arise from alternative polyadenylatio n site usage. The promoter does not contain an obvious TATA box, and the se quence surrounding the start site does not conform to the consensus for an initiator promoter element. Additionally, the mouse promoter contains 22 co pies of a CT dinucleotide repeat sequence located similar to 155 bp 5' to e xon 1.