Isolation and characterization of a gene encoding rat nucleoside diphosphate kinase

Two overlapping genomic clones for a rat nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDP kinase) have been isolated and characterized. Complete sequencing of the genomic segment including the whole coding region for the enzyme revealed that the gene consists of four exons spanning 5.5 kilobase pairs. Primer extension analyses and ribonuclease protection assays indicated that the transcription may start from multiple sites with the major initiation site at 3 base pairs upstream from the translation initiation site, Met-1. Neither CAAT-box nor TATA-box could be assigned for each transcription initiation site, whereas five putative Sp1-binding sites (GC-boxes) were present in the 5'-flanking region. These features of the NDP kinase gene represent those of housekeeping genes. In genomic Southern blotting using a full-length rat NDP kinase cDNA as a probe, many positively hybridized fragments were detected. In support of this, five possible processed pseudogenes were identified in different DNA segments although many other NDP kinase-related genomic fragments remained to be characterized. These results demonstrate that the NDP kinase gene may consist of a multiple gene family.