Poly A+ RNA, isolated from a single 210 day fetal bovine nuchal ligament, was used to synthesize cDNA by the RNase H method, using AMV reverse transcriptase for first strand synthesis and DNA polymerase I for the second strand. The cDNA was inserted into lambda gt10 using EcoRI linkers, and recombinant phage containing elastin sequences were identified by hybridization with a 1.3 kb sheep elastin cDNA clone, pcSELI (Yoon, K. et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 118: 261-265, 1984). Three clones containing the largest inserts of 2.9, 2.8, and 2.6 kb were selected for further study. The complete sequence analysis of the 3 clones was correlated with the sequence of 10.2 kb of the bovine elastin gene. The analyses: (i) showed that the cDNA encompassed the great majority of the translated sequence, (ii) ordered the tryptic peptides of porcine tropoelastin, (iii) determined new amino acid sequences not previously found in the porcine peptides and (iv) demonstrated that alternative splicing of the primary transcript leads to significant variation in the sequence of the translated portion of the mRNA.