A preproinsulin-like pseudogene from Neurospora crassa.

A segment of DNA was amplified from the Neurospora crassa genome by the polymerase chain reaction using several oligonucleotides coding for highly conserved domains in proinsulin as primers and probe. A genomic clone corresponding to this segment was isolated and the nucleotide sequence was determined. The deduced amino acid sequence of a part of this segment bears remarkable resemblance to preproinsulin, but lacks several requirements for transcription or translation and must therefore be considered to be a pseudogene.