Molecular organization and differential polyadenylation sites of the human ETS2 gene

Abstract

The human ETS2 gene is a member of the ets gene family (ETS1, ETS2, ERG, ELK1 and ELK2) with amino acid similarity to the v-ets oncogene of the avian leukemia virus, E26. The ETS2 gene is composed of 10 exons, nine of which contribute to the open reading frame encoding 469 amino acids. The ETS2 gene directs the synthesis of three RNA transcripts, which differ from each other by the length of their 3' ends. This heterogeneity of 3' end is the major reason for the size differences between the transcripts, presumably reflecting utilization of three different polyadenylation signals/sites. The coding regions of all of the ETS2 RNA species are the same length and, thus, should contain the same open reading frame.