Erratum in:

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1989 Mar;86(5):1612-13.

Organization of the human alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor gene.

First Department of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.

We have isolated overlapping phage genomic clones covering an area of 26 kilobases that encodes the human alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor. The alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor gene contains 10 exons and 9 introns distributed over approximately 16 kilobases of DNA. To our knowledge, the number of introns is the highest yet reported for a member of the serine protease inhibitor (serpin) superfamily. All introns are located in the 5'-half of the corresponding mRNA. The 5'-untranslated region and the leader sequence are interrupted by 3 introns totaling approximately equal to 6 kilobases. A "TATA box" sequence is located 17 nucleotides upstream from the proposed transcription initiation site. Multiple "GC box" sequences, G + C-rich sequences, and "CCAAT box"-like sequence, the hepatitis B virus enhancer element-like sequence and the human immunodeficiency virus enhancer-like sequence appear in the 5'-flanking region. The NH2-terminal region, which implements factor XIII-catalyzed cross-linking of alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor to fibrin, is encoded by the 4th exon. The reactive site and plasminogen-binding site, both located in the COOH-terminal region, are encoded by the 10th exon. When similar amino acids of alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor and other members of the serpin gene superfamily are aligned, the position of the 7th intron of the alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor gene aligns precisely with that of the second intron of the genes for rat angiotensinogen and human alpha 1-antitrypsin genes and is misaligned by only one nucleotide with that of the third intron of antithrombin III, suggesting that the alpha 2-plasmin inhibitor gene originates from the common ancestor of these serine protease inhibitors.

PMID: 3166140 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC282073