The primary structure of a feline class I gene: Striking similarity toHLA-A

The sequence of a feline class I pseudogene and its comparison with class I genes from other species is presented. The gene isolated is a pseudogene because of the presence of four stop codons and two frame shift mutations in the first-and second-domain encoding exons, as well as a mutation in a splice acceptor site in the third intron. By sequence comparison with the other class I sequences determined to date, theFLA pseudogene is most closely related to theHLA-A locus products (88% nucleotide identity). The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank nucleotide sequence database and have been assigned the accession number M27192.