Removal of 3’Untranslated Sequences Dramatically Enhances Transient Expression of Ovine Follicle‐Stimulating Hormone Beta Gene Messenger Ribonucleic Acid

Abstract
The influence of the 3'untranslated (3'-UT) region of the ovine follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) β mRNA on the level of transcript expression was studied. Only very low levels of FSH β mRNA were detected following transient transfection of COS cells with a eukaryotic expression vector containing a full-length ovine FSH β cDNA that includes 1.1 kilobases (kb) of 3'-UT. In contrast, deletion of all but 135 basepairs (bp) of the 3'-UT resulted in a striking increase in FSH β mRNA expression following transfection of the truncated cDNA construct. These observations suggest that sequences within the 3'-UT of the ovine FSH β mRNA may play a significant role in the post-transcriptional regulation of FSH β expression.