Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1988 Dec;85(24):9616–9620. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.24.9616

Four exons encode a 93-base-pair insert in three neural cell adhesion molecule mRNAs specific for chicken heart and skeletal muscle.

E A Prediger 1, S Hoffman 1, G M Edelman 1, B A Cunningham 1
PMCID: PMC282815  PMID: 3200847

Abstract

The neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM) is detected in chicken brain as three polypeptides of 180 kDa, 140 kDa, and 120 kDa that arise from a single gene by alternative splicing. Heart tissue, however, contains components of 150 kDa, 140 kDa, and 130 kDa; neither the differences in molecular mass among these components nor the difference between neural and cardiac N-CAM could be accounted for by variations in glycosylation alone. A cDNA clone isolated from an embryonic chicken heart library, [lambda N101B, 1.8 kilobases (kb)] contained a 93-base-pair (bp) insert not found in neural N-CAM cDNAs. In the N-CAM gene this sequence mapped within a large region between exons 12 and 13 and was derived from four exons (12A-D) of 15, 33, 42, and 3 bp. Exons 12C and 12D together coded for 15 amino acids very similar to the second half of the muscle-specific insert (MSD1) found in N-CAM cDNA from human muscle cell cultures [Dickson, G., Gower, H. J., Barton, C. H., Prentice, H. M., Elsom, V. L., Moore, S. E., Cox, R. D., Quinn, C., Putt, W. & Walsh, F. S. (1987) Cell 50, 1119-1130]; the sequences of 12A and 12B, however, were much less similar to the corresponding region of the MSD1 sequence. Two oligonucleotides, one specific to exons 12A plus 12B and one specific to exon 12C both recognized mRNA species of 6.4 kb, 4.3 kb, and 3.0 kb in chicken cardiac and skeletal muscle and no mRNA species in smooth muscle or brain. The 3' end of clone lambda N101B contained a sequence coding for a potential phosphatidylinositol linkage signal as does the smallest form of brain N-CAM. In heart cell membranes only the 130-kDa N-CAM polypeptide was released by phospholipase C, suggesting that this form of N-CAM is encoded by clone lambda N101B. The other heart N-CAM species (150 kDa and 140 kDa) may be transmembrane forms that include the 12A-D (and possibly other) inserts. Tissue-specific forms of N-CAM can thus be formed by alternative use of multiple small exons that may alter the conformation of the extracellular region of the molecule. Differential use or switching of these small exons in conjunction with the differential expression of larger exons specifying regions associated with the cell membrane and cytoplasmic domains may signal key events in embryogenesis and histogenesis.

Full text

PDF
9616

Images in this article

9617Image
on p.9617
9617Image
on p.9617
9618Image
on p.9618
9619Image
on p.9619

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Barbas J. A., Chaix J. C., Steinmetz M., Goridis C. Differential splicing and alternative polyadenylation generates distinct NCAM transcripts and proteins in the mouse. EMBO J. 1988 Mar;7(3):625–632. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1988.tb02856.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Breitbart R. E., Andreadis A., Nadal-Ginard B. Alternative splicing: a ubiquitous mechanism for the generation of multiple protein isoforms from single genes. Annu Rev Biochem. 1987;56:467–495. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.56.070187.002343. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Chuong C. M., Edelman G. M. Alterations in neural cell adhesion molecules during development of different regions of the nervous system. J Neurosci. 1984 Sep;4(9):2354–2368. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.04-09-02354.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Crossin K. L., Chuong C. M., Edelman G. M. Expression sequences of cell adhesion molecules. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Oct;82(20):6942–6946. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.20.6942. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Cunningham B. A., Hemperly J. J., Murray B. A., Prediger E. A., Brackenbury R., Edelman G. M. Neural cell adhesion molecule: structure, immunoglobulin-like domains, cell surface modulation, and alternative RNA splicing. Science. 1987 May 15;236(4803):799–806. doi: 10.1126/science.3576199. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cunningham B. A., Hoffman S., Rutishauser U., Hemperly J. J., Edelman G. M. Molecular topography of the neural cell adhesion molecule N-CAM: surface orientation and location of sialic acid-rich and binding regions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 May;80(10):3116–3120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.10.3116. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Dickson G., Gower H. J., Barton C. H., Prentice H. M., Elsom V. L., Moore S. E., Cox R. D., Quinn C., Putt W., Walsh F. S. Human muscle neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM): identification of a muscle-specific sequence in the extracellular domain. Cell. 1987 Sep 25;50(7):1119–1130. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90178-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Edelman G. M. Cell adhesion molecules in the regulation of animal form and tissue pattern. Annu Rev Cell Biol. 1986;2:81–116. doi: 10.1146/annurev.cb.02.110186.000501. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Edelman G. M., Hoffman S., Chuong C. M., Thiery J. P., Brackenbury R., Gallin W. J., Grumet M., Greenberg M. E., Hemperly J. J., Cohen C. Structure and modulation of neural cell adhesion molecules in early and late embryogenesis. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1983;48(Pt 2):515–526. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1983.048.01.056. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Elder J. H., Alexander S. endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase F: endoglycosidase from Flavobacterium meningosepticum that cleaves both high-mannose and complex glycoproteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Aug;79(15):4540–4544. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.15.4540. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Finne J., Finne U., Deagostini-Bazin H., Goridis C. Occurrence of alpha 2-8 linked polysialosyl units in a neural cell adhesion molecule. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1983 Apr 29;112(2):482–487. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(83)91490-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. He H. T., Finne J., Goridis C. Biosynthesis, membrane association, and release of N-CAM-120, a phosphatidylinositol-linked form of the neural cell adhesion molecule. J Cell Biol. 1987 Dec;105(6 Pt 1):2489–2500. doi: 10.1083/jcb.105.6.2489. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hemperly J. J., Edelman G. M., Cunningham B. A. cDNA clones of the neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM) lacking a membrane-spanning region consistent with evidence for membrane attachment via a phosphatidylinositol intermediate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Dec;83(24):9822–9826. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.24.9822. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Hemperly J. J., Murray B. A., Edelman G. M., Cunningham B. A. Sequence of a cDNA clone encoding the polysialic acid-rich and cytoplasmic domains of the neural cell adhesion molecule N-CAM. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 May;83(9):3037–3041. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.9.3037. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Hoffman S., Edelman G. M. Kinetics of homophilic binding by embryonic and adult forms of the neural cell adhesion molecule. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Sep;80(18):5762–5766. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.18.5762. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Hoffman S., Sorkin B. C., White P. C., Brackenbury R., Mailhammer R., Rutishauser U., Cunningham B. A., Edelman G. M. Chemical characterization of a neural cell adhesion molecule purified from embryonic brain membranes. J Biol Chem. 1982 Jul 10;257(13):7720–7729. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Jones F. S., Burgoon M. P., Hoffman S., Crossin K. L., Cunningham B. A., Edelman G. M. A cDNA clone for cytotactin contains sequences similar to epidermal growth factor-like repeats and segments of fibronectin and fibrinogen. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Apr;85(7):2186–2190. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.7.2186. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Messing J. New M13 vectors for cloning. Methods Enzymol. 1983;101:20–78. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(83)01005-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Mount S. M. A catalogue of splice junction sequences. Nucleic Acids Res. 1982 Jan 22;10(2):459–472. doi: 10.1093/nar/10.2.459. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Murray B. A., Hemperly J. J., Prediger E. A., Edelman G. M., Cunningham B. A. Alternatively spliced mRNAs code for different polypeptide chains of the chicken neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM). J Cell Biol. 1986 Jan;102(1):189–193. doi: 10.1083/jcb.102.1.189. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Murray B. A., Owens G. C., Prediger E. A., Crossin K. L., Cunningham B. A., Edelman G. M. Cell surface modulation of the neural cell adhesion molecule resulting from alternative mRNA splicing in a tissue-specific developmental sequence. J Cell Biol. 1986 Oct;103(4):1431–1439. doi: 10.1083/jcb.103.4.1431. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Owens G. C., Edelman G. M., Cunningham B. A. Organization of the neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM) gene: alternative exon usage as the basis for different membrane-associated domains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Jan;84(1):294–298. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.1.294. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Proudfoot N. J., Brownlee G. G. 3' non-coding region sequences in eukaryotic messenger RNA. Nature. 1976 Sep 16;263(5574):211–214. doi: 10.1038/263211a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Small S. J., Shull G. E., Santoni M. J., Akeson R. Identification of a cDNA clone that contains the complete coding sequence for a 140-kD rat NCAM polypeptide. J Cell Biol. 1987 Nov;105(5):2335–2345. doi: 10.1083/jcb.105.5.2335. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Sorkin B. C., Hoffman S., Edelman G. M., Cunningham B. A. Sulfation and phosphorylation of the neural cell adhesion molecule, N-CAM. Science. 1984 Sep 28;225(4669):1476–1478. doi: 10.1126/science.6474186. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Tabor S., Richardson C. C. DNA sequence analysis with a modified bacteriophage T7 DNA polymerase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Jul;84(14):4767–4771. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.14.4767. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES