The exon structure of the mouse Scl gene is very similar to the mouse Sparc gene

Abstract

Scl and Sparc are two extracellular proteins sharing similarity in their carboxyl terminus, with 63% identity over a 232-amino-acid region. We have cloned and mapped the genomic locus of mouse Scl. The mouse Scl gene contains ll exons spanning ∼35 kb of DNA. The genomic structure (exon/intron boundaries) of Scl exons 6 to exon 11 is identical to those of the similar portion of the Sparc gene. This suggests that Scl and Sparc originated from a common ancestral gene. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis, Scl was localized to band 5E4 of mouse chromosome 5.