The complete nucleotide sequence of the duck alpha A-globin gene

We report the entire nucleotide sequence of the duck alpha A-globin gene including 330 nucleotides of the 5'-flanking region. The amino acid coding sequence of the 815-bp-long gene is interrupted at preserved locations by two intervening sequences. In contrast to all other vertebrate globin genes investigated so far, the first intervening sequence (150 bp) of the duck alpha A-globin gene exceeds the size of the second intervening sequence (104 bp) by 46 bp. Moreover, the alpha A-globin gene has an extraordinary GC-rich 5'-flanking region. Conserved regions are identified which might encode signals for transcriptional initiation, RNA splicing and poly(A) addition.