Use of oligodeoxynucleotide primers to determine poly(adenylic acid) adjacent sequences in messenger ribonucleic acid. 3'-Terminal noncoding sequence of bovine growth hormone messenger ribonucleic acid.

Twelve synthetic oligodeoxynucleotide primers of the general sequence d(pT8-N-N') were tested in a reverse transcriptase reaction for specific initiation of complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) synthesis at the poly(adenylic acid) junction of a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) template. Only the sequence d(pT8-G-C) functioned as a specific primer of cDNA synthesis with an enriched fraction of bovine growth hormone mRNA from the anterior pituitary gland and produced unique fragments in a dideoxy sequencing reaction. The nucleotide sequence obtained by this method extended into the protein coding region of bovine growth hormone mRNA and was confirmed by chemical sequencing of the cDNA initiated with [5'-32P]d(pT8-G-C). The 3'-untranslated region of bovine growth hormone mRNA is 104 nucleotides in length and contains regions of significant homology with both rat and human growth hormone mRNAs, including the region surrounding the common AAUAAA hexanucleotide. The method presented here for selection of the d(pT8-N-N') primer complementary to the poly(A) junction of mRNA is of general applicability for nucleotide sequence analysis of partially purified mRNAs.