Differential RNA cleavage and polyadenylation of the glutamate transporterEAAT2 in the human brain

We cloned four novel transcripts of the excitatory amino acid transporter 2 , named EAAT2/3UT1-4, resulting from differential cleavage and polyadenylat ion. Tandem poly (A) sites were found to be functional at 72, 654, 973 nucl eotides and more than 2 kb downstream of the stop codon. A tissue-specific expression was identified for 3'-variants of the EAAT2 RNA, most prominentl y for EAAT2/3UT4 (hippocampus>cortex much greater than cerebellum>thalamus) as demonstrated by Northern blot analysis and quantitative PCR. We conclud e, that alternative poly (A) selection may contribute to the reported diffe rential EAAT2 protein expression under normal and diseased conditions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.