Cloning, sequencing, and evolutionary analysis of the mouse erythropoietin gene

The gene for mouse erythropoietin was cloned and sequenced. We present here a preliminary analysis of the overall genomic organization of the coding portions and the two flanking regions of the gene. This is the third mammalian erythropoietin for which the sequence is available, but it represents the first from a nonprimate species. We investigated the evolutionary divergence of sequence and structure of the three erythropoietins and identified specific regions of the molecules that are apparently under various degrees, and perhaps different types, of functional constraint.