title: Alternative polyadenylation sites of human endothelial nitric oxide synthase mRNA.
abstract: The mRNA 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) has been shown to have important roles in the regulation of mRNA function. In this study, we investigated the human endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) 3'-UTR to evaluate its potential regulatory role. 3'-RACE analysis revealed that the human eNOS mRNA has multiple alternative polyadenylation sites. Apart from the proximal site (418bp downstream of the stop codon), we identified two additional distal sites approximately 770 and 1478bp downstream of the stop codon. In addition, Northern analysis showed that the usage of these sites differed among human tissues. Further, amounts of these eNOS mRNAs were changed during growth of cultured human aortic endothelial cells; mRNAs with long 3'-UTRs decreased more rapidly than total mRNA, as cells approached confluency. Thus, the 3'-UTRs of human eNOS results from alternative polyadenylation sites and differ across tissues and during cell growth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531, Japan. ihara@b.s.osakafu-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hideshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ihara
authors.forename: Hiroyasu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsutsuki
authors.forename: Tomoaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ida
authors.forename: Shunji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kozaki
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuyama
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moss
mesh_terms: D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000235:genetics*; D026723:Polyadenylation / Q000502:physiology*; D022821:RNA Splice Sites / Q000502:physiology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism*