Expression studies of transfected multigene families by homologous DNA mutagenesis

A valuable approach for multigene family studies where the expression product of at least one gene member of the family is measurable is described. In such cases, the effect on gene expression of nucleotide sequence differences or mutations occurring in other members of the family or at alleles can easily be determined. This is achieved by a strategy called homologous DNA mutagenesis. It consists of the insertion of mutated regions from homologous genes into the context of the gene coding for the assayable product. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of this approach using gene members of the human growth hormone and human placental lactogen (hGH-hPL) multigene family.