Characterization of the murine VEGF-related factor gene

We describe here the molecular cloning and characterization of the murine homolog of the human vascular endothelial growth factor-related factor (VRF) gene. cDNAs for two alternatively spliced forms of the murine vrf gene have been isolated, the putative translation products of which differ at their carboxyl termini due to a shift in reading frame caused by insertion, or lack thereof, of exon 6, in a similar fashion to human VRF (hVRF). The message lacking exon 6 encodes a protein (mvrf167) with 86% identity and 92% conservation of amino acid residues with hVRF. The protein coding region of the gene spans approximately 5kb of genomic DNA and is composed of 8 exons ranging in size from 36 to 398bp. The genomic structure of murine vrf is highly conserved with the human homolog in relation to position of splice junctions and the presence of contiguous exons 6 and 7. A short polymorphic AC repeat is present in the 3' untranslated region of murine vrf. A major band of approximately 1.3kb was expressed in all adult mouse tissues examined.