Figure 2.

Domain structure of rANKRA and the expression profile of rANKRA and rslo transcripts in various tissues. (A) Cartoon for depicting domain structure and deletion construct of rANKRA. Carboxyl terminal three ankyrin-repeats were predicted from Pfam (Washington University), G_α-like sequence in the middle of ANKRA was found from psi-BLAST search, and putative coiled-coil segment was expected by algorithm COILS. Series of deletion mutants were generated based on domain structure and conserved amino acid sequences. (B) Amino acid sequence alignment of G protein α-like region (in A) in the middle of rANKRA. hG_αT is a human rod-specific transducin α-subunit (gi 22027520) and Ce-GPA7 is a C. elegans G protein α-7 subunit (gi 17540930). A putative coiled-coil segment predicted by COIL (Lupas et al., 1991) is indicated as line. (C) Expression patterns of rANKRA (top) and rslo (bottom) were examined by RT-PCR. rANKRA transcripts were expressed ubiquitously in various tissues but more highly in brain subregions and testis (top). Although the expression of rslo was found in many tissues, the dominant expression was detected in brain, testis, and skeletal muscle. The alternative splicing variants of rslo (rslo₀ and rslo₂₇) were found in brain subregions and skeletal muscle. Although the rslo₀ form (702 base pairs) was expressed highly in cerebellum, rslo₂₇ (783 base pairs) was predominant in cerebral cortex and brain stem. β-actin transcripts were amplified for internal reaction control.