Primary structure and evolution of rat growth hormone gene.

The rat growth hormone gene was isolated on a cloned 11.4-kilobase EcoRI-generated DNA fragment from a bacteriophage "library" of chromosomal DNA. The structural gene sequence, approximately 2.1 kilobases long, was identified by hybridization to the corresponding cloned rat growth hormone cDNA and shown to contain four intervening sequences. The complete primary structure of the gene and the 5' and 3'-flanking regions was determined. The mosaic structure of exons and introns can be related to the different biological activities of growth hormone and to the evolution from ancestral sequences of a gene that was the precursor to the growth hormone and the related prolactin and placental lactogen (chorionic somatomammotropin) genes. The largest intron was found to contain a dispersed repetitive DNA sequence flanked by perfect 18-base pair direct repeats. The mobility of sequences of this kind could play a role in the observed variation of intron sizes and in rearrangements of mammalian genes.