Sequence alignment of the A-rich regions of the BC1 RNA gene of different rodent species and the copy number. The sequences of the 3′ ends of the BC1 RNA genes, containing the A-rich stretches, are shown with dashes used to improve the alignments. The rodent sequences are as follows: C, Peromyscus californicus (Accession #U33852); D, deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus (#U33851); R, rat,Rattus norvegicus (#M16113); M, mouse, Mus musculus(# U01310); G, gerbil, Meriones unguiculatus (#U33852); H, hamster Mesocricetus auratus (#U01309); and GP, guinea pig,Cavia porcellus (#U01304). Variations of the adenosine residues between the species are indicated in bold. Rectangles enclose the longer homopolymeric A stretches within the variant region. BC1 copy number for each species (Kass et al. 1996) is indicated at the right. The asterisk represents the copy number only for the rat BC1 type 1 (Kim et al 1994).
