Structural organization of the murine c-kit proto-oncogene

E. Gokkel*, Z. Grossman, B. Ramot, Y. Yarden, G. Rechavi, D. Givol

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

The murine Kit receptor gene on chromosome 5 has been found to be frequently involved in germline mutations and rearrangements, leading to a characteristic set of severe developmental defects, known as the W phenotype. Here we describe the structure of the murine c-kit gene, based on restriction analysis of genomic phage clones and sequence determination of exon-intron boundaries. The Kit-coding region is distributed over 21 exons, most of which have sizes that range between 100 and 200 base pairs. The 3′ non-translated sequence and the 3′ end of the coding region form a single large exon, which encompasses 2.3 kb and is flanked by polyadenylation signals. The entire region spans a genomic distance of at least 70 kb. Though the exonic demarcations of c-kit show remarkable similarity to those of the human c-fms gene (which encodes the highly related colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor), no correlation could be found between the sizes of introns that separate homologous exon pairs. The data suggest that evolutionary pressures were confined to the conservation of structures of coding exons, whereas flanking regions were subject to large changes, owing to insertions and deletions. Finally, the analysis of the Kit genomic structure reveals that the inherited mutations of the Kit gene that have been reported thus far occur at various dispersed positions within the gene. Hence, the entire gene appears to have as yet unknown features which cause it to be frequently subject to mutations in murine germline tissues.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1423-1429
Number of pages7
JournalOncogene
Volume7
Issue number7
StatePublished - Jul 1992
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Structural organization of the murine c-kit proto-oncogene'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this