title: Complex tissue-specific patterns and distribution of multiple RAGE splice variants in different mammals.
abstract: The receptor for advanced glycosylation end products (RAGE) is a multiligand receptor involved in diverse cell signaling pathways. Previous studies show that this gene expresses several splice variants in human, mouse, and dog. Alternative splicing (AS) plays an important role in expanding transcriptomic and proteomic diversity, and it has been related to disease. AS is also one of the main evolutionary mechanisms in mammalian genomes. However, limited information is available regarding the AS of RAGE in a wide context of mammalian tissues. In this study, we examined in detail the different RAGE mRNAs generated by AS from six mammals, including two primates (human and monkey), two artiodactyla (cow and pig), and two rodentia (mouse and rat) in 6-18 different tissues including fetal, adult, and tumor. By nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) we identified a high number of splice variants including noncoding transcripts and predicted coding ones with different potential protein modifications affecting mainly the transmembrane and ligand-binding domains that could influence their biological function. However, analysis of RNA-seq data enabled detecting only the most abundant splice variants. More than 80% of the detected RT-PCR variants (87 of 101 transcripts) are novel (different exon/intron structure to the previously described ones), and interestingly, 20-60% of the total transcripts (depending on the species) are noncoding ones that present tissue specificity. Our results suggest that RAGE undergoes extensive AS in mammals, with different expression patterns among adult, fetal, and tumor tissues. Moreover, most splice variants seem to be species specific, especially the noncoding variants, with only two (canonical human Tv1-RAGE, and human N-truncated or Tv10-RAGE) conserved among the six different species. This could indicate a special evolution pattern of this gene at mRNA level.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBMSO), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (CSIC-UAM), Spain.
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: López-Díez
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rastrojo
authors.forename: Olatz
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Villate
authors.forename: Begoña
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aguado
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000235:genetics*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002417:Cattle; D014644:Genetic Variation; D000882:Haplorhini; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009928:Organ Specificity / Q000235:genetics; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D000067759:Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic / Q000235:genetics*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D013045:Species Specificity; D013552:Swine; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D020033:Protein Isoforms; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D000067759:Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic
keywords: AGER; RAGE; alternative splicing; comparative genomics; mRNA isoforms; noncoding RNA