Human UDP-glucose dehydrogenase gene: Complete cloning and transcription start mapping

UDP-glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) is an unique pathway enzyme, which furnishe s in vertebrates the UDP-glucuronic acid for numerous transferases, includi ng those of glycosaminoglycan synthesis and xenobiotics elimination. Using long and accurate PCR approach and searching the 5' cDNA-end sequences in p ublic databases, we have cloned the human GDH gene. The gene contains 12 ex ons and spans over 26 kb, The first and eighth introns were not reported fo r mouse ortholog, Primer extension analysis identified the transcription st art site 165 bases upstream from the translation initiation site. Most of t he exons were interrupted on codon phase 0, confirming the conserved ancest ral structure of the gene reported on the cDNA level. (C) 2000 Academic Pre ss.