Sequence of an expressed human β-tubulin gene containing tenAlufamily members

Abstract

The complete sequence of a functionally expressed human β-tubul1n gene (5β) is presented. The amino acid sequence encoded by this gene constitutes a distinct isotype, differing from a previously described human β-tubulin sequence at 21 positions throughout the polypeptide chain. The β-tubulin coding sequence in 5β is interrupted by three intervening sequences of 1014, 117 and 4826 nucleotides. The largest of these contains ten members of the Alu family of middle repetitive sequences. Together, these regions account for sixty percent of this intervening sequence. Two of the Alu elements are juxtaposed head to tail, and share the same flanking direct repeat. The ten Alu sequences are substantially divergent, both from each other and from an Alu consensus sequence, and several contain deletions of up to half the entire sequence.