The sequence of 1,773-nucleotide major and 1,806-nucleotide minor mouse liver alpha-amylase mRNAs differ only with respect to approximately 30 additional residues at the extreme 5' terminus of the minor species. Comparison of the liver alpha-amylase mRNAs with their salivary gland counterpart reveals that these mRNAs share identical coding and 3'-noncoding sequences, but contain distinct 5'-terminal residues. These data suggest that all three mRNAs might be transcribed from the same gene.