A comparison of theβ A- andβ B-globin gene clusters of sheep

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Abstract
Domestic sheep have two common alleles at the adult β-globin locus,β A andβ B. Here we report the structure of the β-globin locus of A-haplotype sheep. The locus consists of 12 genes, organized as a triplicated 4-gene set: 5′ ∈I-∈II-ΨβI-βC-∈III-∈IV-ΨβII-βA-∈V-∈VI-ΨβIII-βF 3′. This arrangement is identical to that of the closely related goat locus. Sheep with the B haplotype have a locus arrangement consisting of a duplicated four-gene set, lacking the βC gene as well as three other genes present in A sheep and goats. In order to understand the evolutionary history of the B sheep locus, we have sequenced the βB gene from these sheep, and the βB gene from A-haplotype sheep, and compared the sequences to those of the sheep βA, goat βC, and βA, and cow adult β genes. Our results indicate that the βB gene has diverged recently from the βA gene, and therefore the βB locus structure may have resulted from a recent deletion from a triplicated locus.