Sequencing of putative Xenopus mesotocin gene

A series of studies were conducted on a putative mesotocin cDNA clone of Xenopus laevis packaged in the EcoRI sites of $\lambda$gt10. EcoRI digestions and sequencing work showed that the forward EcoRI recognition site had changed in $\lambda$gt10. HindIII digestion proved the presence of the insert, with a size about 2079bps. The insert was subcloned into a plasmid vector (pGEM) with some $\lambda$gt10 sequence on each side by HindIII cut. Transformants were selected by the combination of ampicillin and blue/white color screening. Sequencing analysis was conducted on a transformant clone that had the appropriate insert. 163 bases were deciphered. No highly homologous sequences were found in the Genbank data base. Many weakly homology sequences were found, but none coded for B. japonicus mesotocin or vasotocin, which means the sequence obtained is neither Xenopus mesotocin or vasotocin. As a result, my data can not test the hypothesis that the third exons between mesotocin and vasotocin were inverted in Xenopus.