The isolation and partial characterization of linked alpha A- and alpha D-globin genes from a duck DNA recombinant library.

Genomic DNA from an adult duck (Cairina moschata) was used to construct a library of cloned DNA fragments in the vector lambda Charon 4A. Screening of the DNA library resulted in the isolation of a recombinant, D alpha G-1, which carries both the adult duck alpha A- and alpha D-globin genes. The two globin genes are separated by approx. 2.2 kb of DNA, they are encoded by the same DNA strand and their orientation with respect to the direction of transcription is 5'- alpha D- alpha A-3'. Partial sequence analyses indicate that the two alpha-globin genes contain intervening sequences at positions homologous to those in chicken and mammalian alpha-globin genes.