A nuclear precursor to human gamma-globin messenger RNA

RNA isolated from human foetal liver at an erythroid stage of development was transferred from methyl mercury hydroxide agarose gels to diazobenzyloxymethyl paper. A 16S RNA species containing gamma-globin mRNA sequences was identified by hybridisation to 32P-labelled human gamma-globin cDNA recombinant plasmid pHgamma GI. This RNA is found only in the cell nucleus and is polyadenylated. Human globin gene transcription is thus analagous to that in mouse: interventing sequences are transcribed and processed from the pre-mRNA in the nucleus after polyadenylation.