We have recently isolated a gene that exhibits a very complex pattern when
analysed by RT-PCR. Up to 8 products were seen in mRNA isolated from a
number of different human tissues (including brain, fibroblasts, liver,
muscle, PBL). Some of the products appeared common to all tissues tested
however a small number of products appeared to be differentially expressed
in these tissues. I shotgun cloned the RT-PCR products obtained from
fibroblast and brain mRNA and sequenced them. I identified a total of 10
transcripts that were missing different combinations of 8 exons. Only 2 of
those transcripts maintain the same putative start codon,stop codon and
open reading frame as the full length transcript. The other 8 hit early
stop codons that lead to the putative translation of very short polypeptide
sequences. I find these observetions very difficult to explain. Does
anyone have any ideas about the possible role of those transcripts that
seem to produce very short translation products? Would these be
translated, or are they due to splicing errors? Any input will be greatly
appreciated. Please send responses directly to my e-mail address. Thank
you
Dr Gabriel Kremmidiotis
Dept Molecular Genetics
Women's & Children's Hospital
Adelaide, Australia
e-mail:gkremmid at ache.mad.adelaide.edu.au
