The sheep metallothionein gene family. Structure, sequence and evolutionary relationship of five linked genes.

Southern blot analysis of the sheep genome revealed a metallothionein gene family with at least nine members. Two overlapping cosmid clones spanning approximately 67 kb and containing five metallothionein genes have been isolated. DNA sequence analysis reveals that one of these is a metallothionein II variant, three are metallothionein I variants and one is a truncated metallothionein pseudogene containing only the first exon. The predicted amino acid sequence was compared with previously reported amino acid composition data of sheep metallothioneins [Whanger, P. D., Oh, S.-H. & Deagen, J. T. (1981) J. Nutr. 111, 1207-1215], and this suggests that we have isolated the genes encoding the major protein isoforms found in the sheep liver. The promoter regions of these genes contain many conserved elements, among them metal-regulatory elements and putative glucocorticoid-responsive elements. However, there are a number of differences between these genes in the arrangement of these elements. Sequence comparisons indicate that the multiple metallothionein I genes and the pseudogene appear to have resulted from sequential duplication events, and a larger cluster of metallothionein I genes may have been disrupted leading to the formation of the pseudogene.