Molecular cloning of complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) for the rat atrial natriuretic peptide

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a cardiac hormone with an important role in fluid, electrolyte and hemodynamic homeostasis. Rat ANP cDNA was cloned from the cDNA library constructed using 1 microgram of atrial mRNA from the heart of Wistar rats. Eight positive clones were isolated with an ANP oligonucleotide probe. One of them with about a 0.8 kb insert was selected for further subcloning and sequencing analysis. The rat ANP cDNA had 813 base pairs with a concensus sequence for transcription initiation, termination and poly A tailing. The deduced amino acid sequence contains a potential glycosylation site and two putative protease cleavage sites. Northern blot analysis showed that the ANP gene was specifically transcribed in the rat atria rather than the ventricles. The results suggest that ANP gene expression is differentially and developmentally controlled.