COMPARISON OF THE STRUCTURE AND EXPRESSION OF THE HUMAN AND RAT NEPRILYSIN (ENDOPEPTIDASE 24.11)-ENCODING GENES

The existence of a third non-coding exon in the human neprilysin-encod ing gene (h-NEP), positionally located as exon 3, has been demonstrate d by reverse transcription of RNA from human kidney and lung, coupled with the polymerase chain reaction. Comparison of nucleotide sequences between h-NEP and the rat NEP (r-NEP) genes shows a high degree of se quence conservation within noncoding exons 1 and 2. In contrast, the. region of the gene containing exon 3 is highly divergent, Two transcri pts derived from exon 2 by alternative splicing, type-2a and type-2b, were demonstrated in human kidney and lung. In contrast, only the type -2b transcript was present in these same tissues in the rat. The type- 1 transcript was detected in human kidney, lung and brain, this transc ript appearing to be the major species in brain.