Multiple 5′-splice variants of the rat glutamate transporter-1

• Published in: Brain research. Molecular brain research. 2005-01, Vol.133 (1), p.157-161
• Main Authors: Rozyczka, Joanna, Engele, Jürgen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternative Splicing; Animals; Astrocytes; Biological and medical sciences; Blotting, Northern - methods; Central Nervous System - anatomy & histology; Central Nervous System - metabolism; Cerebellum; Cortex; Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2 - genetics; Exons; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression; Genetic Variation - physiology; Glutamate transporters; Mesencephalon; Rats; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; RNA Splice Sites - physiology; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Spinal cord; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
• ISSN: 0169-328X; 1872-6941
• DOI: 10.1016/j.molbrainres.2004.09.021

In most brain areas, uptake of extracellular glutamate predominantly occurs through the glutamate transporter subtype, glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1), which is enriched in astroglia. Here, we report the identification of five splice variants of the 5′-leader sequence of rat GLT-1 which contain varying numbers of upstream open reading frames and encode putative GLT-1 proteins with two distinct N-terminal modifications. We further demonstrate that the identified rat 5′-GLT-1 splice variants are expressed in a brain region-specific manner. Our findings point to potential influences of RNA splicing on glial glutamate transport in the intact and injured rat brain.