Isolation and nucleotide sequence of the cDNA for rat liver serine dehydratase mRNA and structures of the 5' and 3' flanking regions of the serine dehydratase gene.

Rat serine dehydratase cDNA clones were isolated from a lambda gt11 cDNA library on the basis of their reactivity with monospecific immunoglobulin to the purified enzyme. Using the cDNA insert from a clone that encoded the serine dehydratase subunit as a probe, additional clones were isolated from the same library by plaque hybridization. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the largest clone obtained showed that it has 1444 base pairs with an open reading frame consisting of 1089 base pairs. The deduced amino acid sequence contained sequences of several portions of the serine dehydratase protein, as determined by Edman degradation. Rat liver serine dehydratase mRNA virtually disappeared from livers of rats fed a protein-free diet for 5 days. Several genomic clones were isolated from two libraries. Determinations of the transcription start site and the structure of the 3' flanking region of the gene indicated that the coded mRNA is 1504 nucleotides long. The 5' promoter region contained a variety of sequences similar to several consensus sequences believed to be important for the regulation of specific gene expression.