MOLECULAR-CLONING, GENOMIC CHARACTERIZATION AND EXPRESSION OF NOVEL HUMAN ALPHA(1A)-ADRENOCEPTOR ISOFORMS

We have isolated and characterized from human prostate novel splice va riants of the human alpha(1A)-adrenoceptor, several of which generate truncated products and one isoform, alpha(1A-4), which has the identic al splice site as the three previously described isoforms. Long-PCR on human genomic DNA showed that the alpha(1A-4) exon is located between those encoding the alpha(1A-1) and alpha(1A-3) variants. CHO-K1 cells stably expressing alpha(1A-4) showed ligand binding properties simila r to those of the other functional isoforms as well as agonist-stimula ted inositol phosphate accumulation. Quantitative PCR analyses reveale d that alpha(1A-4) is tile most abundant isoform expressed in the pros tate with high levels also detected in liver and heart. (C) 1998 Feder ation of European Biochemical Societies.