Sequence of mGK-11, a mouse glandular kallikrein gene.

Like most members of the mouse glandular kallikrein gene family (for review see 1), expression of mGK-11 shows sexual dimorphism in the salivary glands, the level in males being about 30-fold greater than that in females. Nucleotide sequence from the five exons and 625 bp of the 5' flanking region was determined using the enzymatic method . The exon-intron boundaries of mGK-11 (boxed) are identical to those of all other mouse glandular kallikrein genes (see 1, 3 and references therein). The gene also has the variant 5' -TITAAA-3 box typical to kallikrein promoter regions and a normal polyadenylation signal (both underlined). By analogy with known glandular kallikreins, the mGK-11 gene product has a hydrophobic signal sequence (-24 to -8, numbering relative to Ile-1 of the mature protein) followed by a seven residue zymogen peptide. The mature protein is 237 amino acids long and contains the three residues believed necessary for serine protease activity (His-41, Asp-96 and Ser-189) as well as Asp-183 which is thought to direct cleavage at basic residues, giving trypsin-like specificity. Expression of mGK-11 was examined in several mouse tissues by Northern blot analysis, but could only be detected in salivary glands (not shown).