Exon skipping in the ovine alpha s1-casein gene

The reported cDNA sequences for the bovine (Bos taurus) and ovine (Ovis aries) alpha s1-caseins display a high degree of identity with the exception that a 24 bp region, corresponding to bovine exon 16, is absent in the ovine sequence. Here we show that the ovine gene for alpha s1-casein contains a sequence block displaying 23/24 identity to bovine exon 16, indicating that the absence of this block from ovine mRNA is due not to genomic deletion but to exon skipping. Analysis of the products obtained by reverse transcription of ovine alpha s1-casein mRNA followed by amplification, demonstrated the presence of mRNA species containing the exon 16 sequence as well as the species in which it had been spliced out. It was estimated that the latter constitutes 20% of the total ovine alpha s1-casein mRNA. We propose that a substitution within the donor splice site is responsible for the partial skipping of exon 16, possibly through the formation of an inhibitory RNA secondary structure.