Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2004 Feb 1;554(Pt 3):609-19.
doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2003.052712. Epub 2003 Nov 28.

The impact of splice isoforms on voltage-gated calcium channel alpha1 subunits

Karin Jurkat-Rott  1 , Frank Lehmann-Horn
Affiliations
Review

The impact of splice isoforms on voltage-gated calcium channel alpha1 subunits

Karin Jurkat-Rott et al. J Physiol. .

Abstract

Semi-conserved exon boundaries in members of the CACNA1 gene family result in recurring pre-mRNA splicing patterns. The resulting variations in the encoded pore-forming subunit of the voltage-gated calcium channel affect functionally significant regions, such as the vicinity of the voltage-sensing S4 segments or the intracellular loops that are important for protein interaction. In addition to generating functional diversity, RNA splicing regulates the quantitative expression of other splice isoforms of the same gene by producing transcripts with premature stop codons which encode two-domain or three-domain channels. An overview of some of the known splice isoforms of the alpha(1) calcium channel subunits and their significance is given.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Calcium channel nomenclature (modified according to Ertel et al. 2000)
Figure 2
Figure 2. Scheme of the voltage-gated calcium channel α1 subunit
The α1 subunit of voltage gated calcium channels consists of four domains (repeats) of six transmembrane segments connected by intracellular loops. A, conservation of the gene structure at the protein level as determined by protein alignments encoded by all exons of all 10 members of the CACNA1 family. Each protein region encoded by an exon is delineated by bars. White, black and grey bars indicate degree of conservation as noted in the figure. The following human reference sequences were used at NCBI: Cav2.1: NP_075461; Cav2.2: NP_000709; Cav1.2: NP_000710; Cav1.3: NP_000711; Cav2.3: NP_000712; Cav1.4: NP_005174; Cav3.1: NP_061496; Cav3.2: NP_066921; Cav3.3: NP_066919; and Cav1.1: NP_000060. B, regions of the protein that are affected by alternative splicing. Note that the changes now reflect the protein level only (i.e. deletions leading to frame shifts and early truncations are marked as truncation only). The diversity of the primary protein sequence due to insertions, deletions, truncations and alternative sequences is marked by the various symbols.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abernethy DR, Soldatov NM. Structure-functional diversity of human l-type Ca2+ channel: perspectives for new pharmacological targets. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2002;300:724–728. - PubMed
    1. Anderson PA, Greenberg RM. Phylogeny of ion channels: clues to structure and function. Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol. 2001;129:17–28. - PubMed
    1. Barry EL, Gesek FA, Froehner SC, Friedman PA. Multiple calcium channel transcripts in rat osteosarcoma cells: selective activation of α1D isoform by parathyroid hormone. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995;92:10914–10918. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beam KG, Adams BA, Niidome T, Numa S, Tanabe T. Function of a truncated dihydropyridine receptor as both voltage sensor and calcium channel. Nature. 1992;360:169–171. - PubMed
    1. Berke JD, Sgambato V, Zhu PP, Lavoie B, Vincent M, Krause M, Hyman SE. Dopamine and glutamate induce distinct striatal splice forms of Ania-6, an RNA polymerase II-associated cyclin. Neuron. 2001;32:277–287. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources