Cloning of synthetic deoxyribonucleic acid that codes for embryonic cardiac myosin light-chain polypeptide.

Double-stranded complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) transcribed in vitro from a partially pure myosin light-chain messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) of the chick embryonic heart was cloned in Escherichia coli strain chi 1776 by using the HindIII cleavage site in the plasmid pBR322. The insertion of essentially full length DNA was achieved by repeated selection of large-size cDNA transcripts. Of the 12 transformants that contained large-size DNA inserts, the clone pML10 insert was 950 base pairs in length, almost the same size as myosin light-chain mRNA (980 nucleosides). The clone pML10 was identified by hybridization with a highly pure cDNA probe and by hybrid-arrested translation assay. pML10 was further characterized by partial restriction enzyme mapping. The availability of a cloned DNA probe for myosin light-chain facilitates the analysis of the mechanism underlying the induction of cardiac muscle specific gene transcription in presumptive heart-forming cells of the chick blastoderm.