The silkmoth late chorion locus. I. Variation within two paired multigene families.

The 140 X 10(3) base late chorion locus of Bombyx mori contains two 15-member multigene families arranged in tightly linked pairs, which are divergently transcribed (the high-cysteine A (HcA) and the high-cysteine B (HcB) families). Previous DNA hybridization experiments have indicated that all members of these gene families contain a complex pattern of shared sequence variation. The sequence analysis in this paper involving all 15 gene pairs allows a comprehensive examination of the nature of this variation. Average sequence homology between gene pairs is: 95% for the protein-encoding regions; 93% for the common 272 base-pair 5' flanking region; 87% for the introns; and 88% for the 3' untranslated regions. Considering the great degree of sequence homology in the coding regions, an unexpectedly high level of variation is found in the deduced protein sequences. Over 50% of the nucleotide substitutions in the protein-encoding regions lead to amino acid replacements, most of which involve a change in charge or effect the secondary structure of the protein. In addition, significant differences in length between the proteins occur in the carboxyl-terminal arm. In both families, the major portion of this arm is composed of Cys-Gly-Gly and Cys-Gly subrepeats forming a (Cys-Gly-Gly)2-(Cys-Gly)2 major repeat. Differences in the number of complete and partial repeats results in deduced protein sequences that contain arms varying from 32 to 54 amino acid residues for members of the HcA family and 14 to 88 residues for the HcB family. The high level of variation in protein composition indicates a lack of strong selective pressure. We suggest the high level of DNA sequence homology maintained by these genes in the coding as well as in the non-coding regions is the result of sequence exchange between family members.