In mammals, the apolipoprotein (apo) A-I gene is expressed predominantly in liver and intestine, while in avian species it is expressed in all tissues. Although liver and intestine are the major sites of chicken apoA-I mRNA synthesis, there are appreciable amounts of apoA-I mRNA in kidney, ovary/testes, brain, lung, skeletal, and heart muscle. In this study, the nucleotide sequences of the chicken apoA-I gene and its 5' flanking region, as well as the sequences involved in the expression of this gene, have been determined. The gene spans 1.5 kilobases and contains 4 exons and 3 introns, closely resembling the mammalian apoA-I gene. To determine the sequences involved in the expression of the chicken apoA-I gene, plasmid constructs containing serial deletions of the 5' flanking region of the chicken apoA-I gene fused to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene were transfected in human hepatoma (HepG2), colon carcinoma (Caco2), epithelial (Hela), mouse embryonal fibroblast (NIH3T3) cells, and quail myoblasts (QMLA29). The shortest deletion construct, containing 60 bp of the 5' upstream region, was sufficient for maximal transcriptional activity in all cell lines tested. This region contains a short sequence (nucleotides -60 to -54) that is highly conserved in birds and mammals, and an Sp1 binding site. Although the sequence between nucleotides -232 and -101 of the 5' region of the chicken apoA-I gene is partially homologous to the hepatic cell-specific enhancer of the mammalian apoA-I gene (located between nucleotides -222 and -110 upstream of the human apoA-I gene transcription start site), this chicken sequence is transcriptionally inactive in HepG2 cells. These results suggest that differences in the cis-acting regulatory elements of the apoA-I gene play a fundamental role in determining the differences in the tissue-specific expression of this gene in avian and mammalian species.