THE STRUCTURE AND COMPLETE NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE OF THE AVIAN LIPOPROTEIN-LIPASE GENE

The entire gene for chicken lipoprotein lipase (LPL) has been isolated and characterized by primer extension and sequence analysis. The gene is 17 kilobase pairs long and comprises 10 exons and 9 introns. As determined by primer extension analysis the start sites of transcription map 176, 204 and 218 nucleotides upstream of the initiator methionine codon. The 1947 base pairs of 5' flanking sequence contains several putative regulatory elements including two adjacent Oct I binding elements, four glucocorticoid regulatory elements and a sequence very homologous to the previously described fat specific element at -1402 nt. The first intron is very large (6433 bp) and contains four consensus SpI binding-site sequences. Five polyadenylation signals are found in the 3' untranslated region, the last three of which give predicted mRNA species identical in size to those determined by Northern blot. The 5' flanking sequences of the LPL, pancreatic lipase and hepatic lipase genes do not show homology, however. This may account for the homologous amino acid sequences but dissimilar gene expression of these enzymes.