Isolation and characterization of the gene coding for murine high-mobility-group protein HMGI-C

The HMGI-C protein is a nuclear factor expressed in human and rodent neoplastic cells which has been shown to be involved in the process of cell transformation. We have previously isolated the cDNA encoding murine HMGI-C and now we report the cloning and analysis of the mouse Hmgi-c gene. The gene is at least 50 kb long, contains five exons, and each of the three DNA-binding domains is encoded by a different exon. The location of exon-intron junctions was determined and shown to follow the GT-AG rule. The sequence revealed that the overall organization is similar to the gene encoding human HMGI(Y), the other member of the HMGI family, suggesting that HMGI genes probably evolved through gene duplication and exon shuffling events from an ancestral gene. A highly homologous pseudogene is also present in the mouse genome. Our results on Hmgi-c structure provide basic information to carry out further studies on the regulation of its expression.