Ovalbumin gene: evidence for a leader sequence in mRNA and DNA sequences at the exon-intron boundaries.

Selected regions of cloned EcoRI fragments of the chicken ovalbumin gene have been sequenced. The positions where the sequences coding for ovalbumin mRNA (ov-mRNA) are interrupted in the genome have been determined, and a previously unreported interruption in the DNA sequences coding for the 5' nontranslated region of the messenger has been discovered. Because directly repeated sequences are found at exon-intron boundaries, the nucleotide sequence alone cannot define unique excision-ligation points for the processing of a possible ov-mRNA precursor. However, the sequences in these boundary regions share common features; this leads to the proposal that there are, in fact, unique excision-ligation points common to all boundaries.