Post-natal developmental expression of alphaKAP splice variants in rabbit fast-twitch and slow-twitch skeletal muscle

AlphaKAP is a non-kinase product of a gene within alpha CaMKII gene, that anchors catalytic subunits to skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum. alphaKAP gene expresses two distinct mRNA transcripts by alternative splicing in rabbit fast muscle, rather than one, as an apparently fiber-type specific and species-specific property. We report on the expression profile of alphaKAP gene in fast and slow muscles of adult rats and in rabbit post-natal developing muscles, by RT-PCR analysis of muscle RNA, together with Western blot analysis of expressed alphaKAP protein isoforms. We show that alphaKAP isoform predominantly expressed in muscle of newborn rabbits, corresponds to the fast-adult isoform. In fast muscle, the transition from neonatal isoform to the common adult isoform takes place early after birth, and is never complete, unlike in slow muscle. Relevant to these findings, is the observation that neonatal/embryonic alphaKAP mRNA is highly expressed in rat myotubes grown in vitro. Together, our findings suggest that alphaKAP splicing pathways are primarily modulated according to muscle developmental stage.