Sequence Analysis of the Cloned mRNA Coding for Glyceraldehyde‐3‐Phosphate Dehydrogenase from Chicken Heart Muscle

Abstract

Using a cloned c[complementary]DNA (pGAP30) the nucleotide sequence for chicken glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase mRNA was determined. The cDNA insert contains 1051 nucleotides representing the amino acid coding sequence, with the exception of 49 NH2-terminal amino acids, and includes the entire 3''-noncoding region. Sequence information on the missing 5'' terminus of the mRNA, not represented in the clone pGAP30, was obtained by extension of the cDNA using an 85-nucleotide-long internal fragment as a primer. The sequence of 310 amino acids of chicken glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase representing 93% of the complete primary structure could be derived. The coding portion exhibits non-random utilization of synonymous codons with a strong bias for codons with G or C at the 3rd position. The non-coding region contains several octanucleotides which are repeated and shows a potentially stable stem-and-loop structure located towards the end of the mRNA. Hypothetical functional implications of the putative secondary structure are discussed.