Folch J M, Coll A, Hayes H C, Sànchez A
Departament de Patologia i Producció Animals, Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
Gene. 1996 Oct 24;177(1-2):87-91. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(96)00276-4.
A beta-lactoglobulin (beta-LG) pseudogene has been isolated and sequenced (7634 bp) in goat. Its structure is remarkably similar to that of the beta-LG gene with all seven exons placed in the same relative position. The pseudogene seems to have originated by gene duplication, but a non uniform distribution of similarities along the sequence suggests that events of gene conversion have also occurred during its evolution. The comparison of the predicted ancestral protein encoded by the pseudogene shows its evolutionary relationship to the monomeric beta-LG II forms of the beta-LG reported in some non-ruminant species. Southern-blot analysis shows that similar pseudogenes are also found in the genome of sheep and cow. The pseudogene has been mapped by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) to sheep chromosome 3p28 and cattle and goat chromosomes 11q28, in the same mapped position as that found for the beta-LG gene in all these species.
