Genetic evidence for alpha 2-adrenergic receptor subtypes in rat brain, heart and adrenal gland

A complementary DNA (cDNA) clone - cA2-47 - corresponding to a new alpha 2-adrenergic receptor subtype has been isolated from a rat brain cDNA library and used as a hybridization probe to scrutinize the alpha 2-receptor poly(A+) RNAs in rat brain, heart and adrenal gland. Hybridization of the 5' half of the coding region of this cDNA at 37 degrees C to rat brain poly(A+) RNA revealed a single band at 5.8 kb as the size of its corresponding mRNA. Under identical hybridization conditions, a human platelet alpha 2-receptor genomic probe failed to hybridize to any rat brain mRNAs. Under lower stringency conditions, hybridization of the full-length cDNA, cA2-47, to selected rat tissue poly(A+) RNA showed the presence of four different sized mRNAs in brain and three in both heart and adrenal gland. Messages of 1.3 kb and 2.1 kb were common in all three tissues (although the band at 2.1 kb was slightly higher in the heart and adrenal gland). A 5.8 kb mRNA was unique to the brain and a slightly higher band at 6.0 kb was consistently present in heart and adrenal gland but was absent in the brain. A fourth message at 3.4 kb was found predominantly in the brain and was either absent or present at very low levels in the other tissues examined.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)