Gene structure of chum salmon somatolactin, a presumed pituitary hormone of the growth hormone/prolactin family.

From a chum salmon genomic DNA library, clones coding for somatolactin (SL), a presumed pituitary hormone belonging to the GH/PRL family, were isolated and analyzed. The salmon SL gene was 16 kilobases (kb) in length, this being the largest among mammalian GH (approximately 2 kb) and PRL (approximately 10 kb) and fish GH (approximately 4 kb) genes. As in the case of mammalian GH/PRL genes, the salmon SL gene was comprised of five exons in contrast to rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon GH genes, which each have six exons. Upstream from the transcriptional initiation site were found one TATA box identical to those of mammalian PRL genes and four consensus sequences corresponding to the Pit-1/GHF-1 binding element which is essential to the expression of mammalian GH and/or PRL genes. The similarity in amino acid sequences and organization of the SL gene with mammalian GH/PRL genes indicates that the SL gene is quite likely produced from an ancestral gene common to GH/PRL genes by gene duplication. Based on these considerations, an evolutionary model for the GH/PRL/SL gene family was made and shows the common ancestral gene to originate not from duplication of a primordial gene but from shuffling of independent exons and a regulatory sequence.