A Complete Rat Serum Albumin cDNA Clone Directly Identified by Immunological Screening of cDNA Expression Library

Abstract

A cDNA expression library was constructed from rat liver poly(A)⁺ RNA by the vector primer and tailed linker methods using an Escherichia coli expression vector pKEN601 [K. Nakamura, Y. Iwasaki and T. Hattori, Gene, 44, 347 (1986)]. Immunological screening of this library with specific antibody against rat serum albumin identified a colony which carried a plasmid with a cDNA insert of 2.15 kilobases (kb). Restriction enzyme mapping and DNA sequencing analyses indicated that this cDNA clone carries a complete length rat serum albumin cDNA, and the 5′-terminus of the cDNA is in the potential capping site of the corresponding nuclear gene sequence.