Structural organization of the rat gene for the arginine vasopressin-neurophysin precursor

Abstract

The rat arginine vasopressin-neurophysin precursor gene has been isolated from a genomic library cloned in X phage Charon 4A. Restriction mapping and nucleotide sequence analysis demonstrated that the gene is 1.85 kilobase pairs long and contains two intervening sequences located in the protein coding region. Exon A encodes a putative signal peptide, the hormone arginine vasopressin and the variable N terminus of the carrier protein neurophysin, exon B encodes the highly conserved middle part of neurophysin and exon C its variable C terminus together with glycoprotein. Thus, the three functional domains of the precursor -argiline vasopressin, neurophysin, glycoprotein -are encoded on three distinct exons.