DIVERGENT SEQUENCES IN THE 5' REGION OF CDNA SUGGEST ALTERNATIVE SPLICING AS A MECHANISM FOR THE GENERATION OF CARNITINE ACETYLTRANSFERASESWITH DIFFERENT SUBCELLULAR LOCALIZATIONS

We identified two partially overlapping cDNAs containing divergent 5' sequences of human carnitine acetyltransferase (CAT). cDNA lambda SM-1 400 extends the sequence of peroxisomal CAT, whereas cDNA lambda SM-12 00 creates a new open reading frame encoding a putative mitochondrial leader peptide. An intron located where sequences diverge, suggesting that mitochondrial, peroxisomal and possibly endoplasmic reticulum CAT mRNAs derive from alternative splicing of the CAT gene.