title: Characterization of the human alpha-synuclein gene: Genomic structure, transcription start site, promoter region and polymorphisms.
abstract: The human NACP/alpha-synuclein gene has been cloned. This gene consists of 6 exons ranging in size from 42 to 1110 bp. The translation start codon ATG is encoded by exon 2 and the stop codon TAA is encoded by exon 6. The non-Abeta component of Alzheimer's disease amyloid (NAC) is encoded by exon 4. The two previously reported minor isoforms of NACP/alpha-synuclein, NACP112 [29] and NACP126 [6], are alternatively spliced products, in which exon 5 and exon 3 are spliced out, respectively. Exon 1 was found to have different splicing sites, producing different 5'-untranslated sequences in the cDNAs. A previously reported dinucleotide repeat polymorphic marker has been mapped to 8kb upstream of the transcription start site. A highly TC-rich sequence in intron 4 was found to be polymorphic by length and four alleles, A0, A1, A2 and B have been identified in the Caucasian population. Genotyping this polymorphism among pure Alzheimer's, Lewy body variant and Parkinson's subjects and aged normal control subjects did not reveal any significant differences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA92093-0624, USA.
authors.forename: Yu
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authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Tsunao
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authors.lastname: Saitoh
authors.forename: Kenji
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authors.lastname: Uéda
authors.forename: Seigo
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authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Makoto
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authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Leigh
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Chris
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authors.lastname: Conrad
authors.forename: Mary
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authors.lastname: Sundsmo
authors.forename: Makoto
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authors.lastname: Yoshimoto
authors.forename: Leon
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authors.lastname: Thal
authors.forename: Robert
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authors.lastname: Katzman
authors.forename: Eliezer
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authors.lastname: Masliah