A detailed comparison of the 5'-end of the ovalbumin gene cloned from chicken oviduct and erythrocyte DNA.

We have examined homologous fragments of DNA cloned from two different tissues for changes in the dNA sequence which might be related to tissue specific gene expression. The 5' end of the chicken ovalbumin gene was cloned from oviduct or erythrocyte DNA DNA using cosmids as vectors. We have compared the two clones obtained by restriction enzyme digestions, analysis of heteroduplexes by electron microscopy or S1 nuclease digestion and by DNA sequencing. Our results show that whereas no alteration occured in the region of the gene assumed to be of importance for the control of transcription, a 4 nucleotide deletion/insertion was detected in the first intron of the ovalbumin gene.