Intron / Exon structure of eukarotic genes

Intron / Exon Structure of a eukaryotic gene

The RNA transcript of the DNA encoding chicken ovalbumin protein was hybridized back to the ssDNA template strand from which it was transcribed. Instead of a one-to-one co-linear pairing as expected based on prokaryotic DNA, the ssDNA "loops out" in order to pair with the mRNA. This indicates that the structure of the gene is a series of exons (1 - 7, above) that are expressed in the mRNA, separated by a series of intervening introns (A - G) that have been "spliced out" of the hnRNA. The mature mRNA is 1872bp long: introns make up >75% of the length of the gene.