THE OVOMUCOID GENE ORGANIZATION, STRUCTURE AND REGULATION

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the ovomucoid gene organization, structure, and regulation. The molecular mechanism by which steroid hormones regulate specific gene expression has been an area of acute interest. One attractive model system for studying this hormonal regulation has been the hen oviduct. Administration of estrogen to the newborn chick stimulates oviduct growth and differentiation and results in the appearance of a number of new specific intracellular proteins. The synthesis of one of these proteins, ovalbumin, has been studied. Ovalbumin mRNA has been purified and a full-length dsDNA copy synthesized and cloned in a bacterial plasmid. Moreover, ovalbumin genomic DNA sequences have been isolated from restriction enzyme digests of hen DNA and cloned. The chapter discusses the cloning of the ovomucoid structural gene sequence. It also describes the synthesis and cloning of a complementary DNA copy and identification of an ovomucoid structural gene clone And discusses a partial restriction map of pOM100.