ISSN:
0730-2312
Keywords:
myosin heavy chains
;
rat heart
;
naturally occurring antisense mRNA
;
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
Notes:
Analysis of mRNA by Northern blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction demonstrated the expression of sense and considerable amounts of naturally occurring antisense mRNA for β-myosin heavy chain (MHC) and α-MHC in the neonatal rat heart: antisense MHC mRNA expression of α-MHC and β-MHC was approximately half of the corresponding sense MHC mRNA expression. Using a computational approach, we could identify a reverse Pol II promoter in the β-MHC gene. Both sense and antisense MHC mRNA demonstrated similar sizes of approximately 6,000 bp in the Northern blot. Alpha-MHC antisense mRNA consisted of approximately 3,700 bp of complementary exon sequences and β-MHC consisted of approximately 2,700 bp, suggesting a higher probability of α-MHC mRNA dimerization. Hence, sense mRNA transcripts and protein of α-MHC should exist at different relative levels in the neonatal state. In fact, the relative proportion of α-MHC was 52.0 ± 2.6% on the sense mRNA but only 36.3 ± 1.8% on the protein level. Because of its high abundance in the heart, we suggest that in the neonatal heart naturally occurring antisense mRNA may play a role in the regulation of MHC expression and, therefore, in the control of the energetical and contractile behaviour of the heart. J. Cell. Biochem. 70:110-120, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Additional Material:
7 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
