Genomic organization of the human Y-box protein (YB-1) gene

The human Y-box protein (YB-1) is a member of a family of DNA-binding proteins containing a highly conserved cold shock domain. The genomic organization of the human YB-1 gene was determined from five overlapping genomic clones that encompassed all exons of the gene. Sequence analysis of these clones revealed that human YB-1 spans approximately 19 kb of genomic DNA and contains eight exons. The cold shock domain is encoded by exons 1-5. Both exon-splitting and codon-splitting in the region of the gene encoding the cold shock domain are similar to those in the corresponding region of another Y-box binding protein, dbpA. Exon-intron structures and nucleotide sequences of the regions encoding the N-terminal and C-terminal domains of the two proteins differ markedly between YB-1 and dbpA. These observations suggest that YB-1 and dbpA arose by duplication of a common ancestral gene encoding all these domains.