Figure 1

An alternatively spliced mRNA of CstF-64 is present in mouse brain. A) Gene structure of CstF-64 and location of primer pairs. Boxes indicate exons; black line indicates introns; exons 8 and 9 are in red while all the other exons are black; the 3' UTR is blue. B) RT-PCR analysis of alternatively spliced mRNAs of CstF-64. RNA from indicated mouse tissues was subjected to RT-PCR using primer pairs A, B, C, and D (panels a, b, c, and d respectively). Sizes of amplified products are indicated at the right. Panel e (-RT) denotes RT-PCR using primer pair C with no reverse transcriptase added. C) Splicing patterns in CstF-64 mRNA. a) CstF-64 genomic structure showing exon 8, 9 and the intervening intron. Boxes indicate exons and horizontal lines indicate introns; vertical lines indicate splicing patterns. The thin white line in exon 9 denotes the alternative 3' splice site. b) Splicing pattern of the regular form of CstF-64 mRNA. c) Splicing pattern of the shorter CstF-64 mRNA (αCstF-64). d) Splicing pattern of βCstF-64 mRNA. The sizes of the βCstF-64-specific exons (8.1 and 8.2) are indicated. D) Predicted domain structures of mouse CstF-64 and βCstF-64. Shown are the RNA-binding domains (RBD, dark gray), the region of interaction with CstF-77 (77-BD, light gray), the proline/glycine domain (Pro/Gly, white box), MEARA repeat domain (12× MEARA, dark gray) and the conserved C-terminal domain (CTD, light gray). The region within the Pro/Gly domain that contains a deletion of 26 amino acids is indicated by vertical lines, and the 49 amino acid βCstF-64-specific domain is indicated by the black box.