The complete genomic sequence of the carp fast skeletal myosin heavy chain gene

We have determined the complete DNA nucleotide sequence of the carp Cyprinus carpio fast skeletal myosin heavy chain (MYH) gene. Introns and exons were predicted by comparison with the corresponding carp MYH cDNAs previously reported. The gene encoded the entire mRNA transcript and contained 5958 nucleotides (nt) including 77 nt 5′-untranslated region, 5796 nt coding region for 1931 amino acids, and 85 nt 3′-untranslated region. The coding region was split by 38 introns and the complete gene contained 11,385 nt. This integration of the carp fast skeletal MYH gene was comparable to those of the rat and chicken embryonic MYH genes, which have 41 and 40 exons, respectively. However, the entire gene size of carp MYH was about half those of rat and chicken due to much smaller size of carp introns. We have also demonstrated that this carp MYH gene belonged to so-called intermediate type in a multigene family of carp fast skeletal muscle MYH in comparison of its nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences to those of carp MYH cDNAs reported previously.