The structure of a Phaseolus vulgaris cDNA encoding the iron storage protein ferritin

A cDNA containing the entire coding region for the iron storage protein ferritin has been isolated from the French bean plant, Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Tendergreen. Ferritin protein was purified from young leaves and shoot meristem tissue and used to raise antisera in mice. A lambda gt11 cDNA library was constructed from seed-derived poly(A)+ RNA, and screened with the mouse anti-ferritin serum. A 1.2 kb immunopositive phage DNA insert was isolated and sequenced. The derived amino acid sequence shows substantial similarity with other ferritin sequences. The 5' untranslated region contains two out-of-frame AUG codons, a region of extreme pyrimidine composition bias and potentially stable secondary structure.