The structure of a cloned mouse gamma-actin processed pseudogene

The complete nucleotide (nt) sequence of a gamma-actin-like pseudogene (M gamma A-psi 1), isolated from a mouse genomic library in phage lambda, was determined. The pseudogene was shown to be of the processed type by the fact that it lacked introns, ended in a poly(dA) region, and was flanked by direct repeats. There were ten differences in the predicted amino acid (aa) sequence from that of the authentic nonmuscle gamma-actin. An unusual feature of M gamma A-psi 1 was the complete absence of DNA corresponding to the 5' end of the mRNA up to the nt preceding the Ala codon at aa position 7. This suggests that M gamma A-psi 1 originated from a truncated mRNA or from an incomplete reverse transcript.