title: Age and gender-dependent alternative splicing of P/Q-type calcium channel EF-hand.
abstract: Ca(v)2.1 Ca(2+) channels (P/Q-type), which participate in various key roles in the CNS by mediating calcium influx, are extensively spliced. One of its alternatively-spliced exons is 37, which forms part of the EF hand. The expression of exon 37a (EFa form), but not exon 37b (EFb form), confers the channel an activity-dependent enhancement of channel opening known as Ca(2+)-dependent facilitation (CDF). In this study, we analyzed the trend of EF hand splice variant distributions in mouse, rat and human brain tissues. We observed a developmental switch in rodents, as well as an age and gender bias in human brain tissues, suggestive of a possible role of these EF hand splice variants in neurophysiological specialization. A parallel study performed on rodent brains showed that the data drawn from human and rodent tissues may not necessarily correlate in the process of aging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 2 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597.
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: T F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Yong
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pletnikova
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Troncoso
authors.forename: J-M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Burgunder
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Soong
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D020864:Calcium Channels, N-Type / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D007438:Introns; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D020864:Calcium Channels, N-Type