Clark A J, Hickman J, Bishop J
EMBO J. 1984 Sep;3(9):2055-64. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb02091.x.
The multigene family which codes for the mouse major urinary proteins (MUPs) consists of approximately 35 genes. Most of these are members of two different groups, Group 1 and Group 2, which can be distinguished by nucleic acid hybridisation. By screening a Charon 4A library of mouse DNA with probes from the 5'-flanking region of a MUP gene, we have isolated clones that contain both a Group 1 and a Group 2 gene, orientated in a divergent fashion, with 15 kb of DNA between the 5' ends of the genes. We show that this pairwise arrangement is the predominant organisation of MUP genes in the BALB/c genome. We argue that the head-to-head gene pair is the unit both of DNA organisation and of evolution. Taking into account the genes themselves, the intervening 15 kb and the homologous 3'-flanking regions, this unit is approximately 45 kb long. We also show that some MUP genes may be linked in a tail-to-tail fashion with 26-28 kb between the 3' ends of two genes. This suggests that the minimum distance between successive 45-kb units is approximately 7 kb.
编码小鼠主要尿蛋白（MUPs）的多基因家族由大约35个基因组成。其中大多数是两个不同组（第1组和第2组）的成员，这两组可通过核酸杂交加以区分。通过用来自一个MUP基因5'侧翼区的探针筛选小鼠DNA的Charon 4A文库，我们分离出了含有一个第1组基因和一个第2组基因的克隆，这两个基因呈发散排列，基因的5'端之间有15 kb的DNA。我们表明，这种成对排列是BALB/c基因组中MUP基因的主要组织形式。我们认为，头对头的基因对既是DNA组织的单位，也是进化的单位。考虑到基因本身、中间的15 kb和同源的3'侧翼区，这个单位大约长45 kb。我们还表明，一些MUP基因可能以尾对尾的方式相连，两个基因的3'端之间有26 - 28 kb。这表明连续的45 kb单位之间的最小距离约为7 kb。
