Eberwine J H, Roberts J L
DNA. 1983;2(1):1-8. doi: 10.1089/dna.1.1983.2.1.
Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) is the protein precursor to several physiologically distinct peptide hormones. The POMC gene is expressed in several distinct cell types and appears to be under differential regulation depending upon the cell location. The structure of the POMC gene in human, bovine, rat, and mouse is very similar, suggesting that this particular structure has functional significance. The gene is broken by intervening sequences into a 5' noncoding region, a signal sequence-coding region, and a peptide hormone-coding region. Middle-repetitive DNA sequences are present in both introns of the genes as well as the 5'-flanking regions in all species studied; this too suggests that this structural element has functional significance. The peptide hormone-coding sequences are well conserved among species, whereas the nonhormonal "spacer" sequences are poorly conserved. Differential regulation of the POMC gene appears to occur by the differential recognition of effector molecules. Although the studies are not complete, all available evidence suggests that there is only a single POMC gene which is express in mammalian tissues.
阿黑皮素原（POMC）是几种生理功能不同的肽类激素的蛋白质前体。POMC基因在几种不同的细胞类型中表达，并且根据细胞位置似乎受到不同的调控。人类、牛、大鼠和小鼠的POMC基因结构非常相似，这表明这种特定结构具有功能意义。该基因被间隔序列分割为一个5'非编码区、一个信号序列编码区和一个肽类激素编码区。在所研究的所有物种中，基因的内含子以及5'侧翼区域都存在中度重复DNA序列；这也表明这种结构元件具有功能意义。肽类激素编码序列在物种间高度保守，而非激素“间隔”序列则保守性较差。POMC基因的差异调控似乎是通过效应分子的差异识别来实现的。尽管研究尚未完成，但所有现有证据表明，在哺乳动物组织中表达的POMC基因只有一个。
