Construction of Bacterial Plasmids that Contain the Nucleotide Sequence for Bovine Corticotropin-β -Lipotropin Precursor

mRNA that encodes the common peptide precursor for the hormones corticotropin and beta-lipotropin was purified from the neurointermediate lobe of bovine pituitaries, and double-stranded cDNA species synthesized from this template were cloned in Escherichia coli X1776 by inserting them into the Pst I endonuclease cleavage site of the pBR322 plasmid using poly(dG)poly(dC) homopolymeric extensions. Certain of the cloned cDNA inserts contain nucleotides corresponding to the complete amino acid sequence of bovine corticotropin and a coding sequence that corresponds to at least the first portion of bovine beta-lipotropin. The nucleotide sequences coding for corticotropin and beta-lipotropin are separated on the cDNA by a 6-base-pair sequence encoding lysine and arginine, indicating that the carboxyl terminus of corticotropin is connected on the precursor peptide with the amino terminus of beta-lipotropin by these two amino acids. In addition, the cloned cDNA insert is characterized by an unusually high C+G nucleotide base content as well as by a number of DNA sequence duplications.