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Differential splicing of transcripts encoding the orphanin FQ/nociceptin precursor
Author(s) -
Arjomand Jamshid,
Evans Chris J.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1046/j.1471-4159.2001.00219.x
Subject(s) - nociceptin receptor , exon , alternative splicing , rna splicing , translation (biology) , signal peptide , nop , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , messenger rna , peptide sequence , genetics , gene , receptor , rna , opioid peptide , opioid
Orphanin FQ or nociceptin (OFQ/N), the heptadecapeptide agonist for the NOP receptor, is derived by proteolytic processing from a precursor protein, preproOFQ/N. Previous studies have reported alternative splicing between exons 3 and 4 of the mouse OFQ/N transcript, which, upon translation, would yield precursor proteins with different C‐termini. Using RT‐PCR, we identified similar alternative splicing of preproOFQ/N transcripts in humans and rats. In addition, we identified two novel human preproOFQ/N splice variants from which exon 2 has been excised and which also undergo alternative splicing between exons 3 and 4. Exon 2 contains the translational start site for preproOFQ/N and encodes the signal peptide sequence. In vitro translation of cRNAs lacking exon 2 yields shorter translation products which arise from an alternative initiator methionine located within exon 3. The resulting proteins would lack a signal peptide sequence, which would likely alter their cellular trafficking and processing.