Characterization of the two nonallelic genes encoding mouse preproinsulin

We have cloned and sequenced the two mouse preproinsulin genes. The deduced amino acid sequences of the mature mouse insulins are identical to the published protein sequences. However, the nucleotide sequence indicates that the mouse I C-peptide has a deletion of two amino acids compared with the mouse II C-peptide. We used an S1 nuclease assay to confirm the presence of the deletion and to measure the ratio of transcripts from gene I to transcripts from gene II. The mouse preproinsulin I gene, like the rat gene I, is missing the second intervening sequence that normally interrupts the C-peptide region in other insulin genes. Comparison of the 5' flanking sequences of the mouse and rat genes II indicates that they are homologous for at least 1000 base pairs. The preproinsulin I genes also share homology in their 5' flanking DNAs; however, their homology to the preproinsulin II genes extends for only about 500 base pairs.