Alternative splicing is not a key source of chemerin isoforms diversity

Area of Science:

• Molecular Biology
• Genetics
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Chemerin, a protein encoded by the RARRES2 gene, possesses adipokine and antimicrobial properties.
• Chemerin bioactivity is influenced by proteolytic processing, generating diverse isoforms.
• The contribution of alternative splicing to chemerin isoform diversity is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of alternative splicing in generating RARRES2 transcript variants.
• To identify novel RARRES2 transcript variants in mouse and human tissues.
• To analyze the expression patterns of RARRES2 variants under different conditions.

Main Methods:

• Rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) PCR to identify RARRES2 transcript variants.
• Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) to analyze gene expression.
• Analysis of publicly available RNA sequencing datasets.

Main Results:

• A novel transcript variant 4 of mouse Rarres2, encoding mChem153K, was identified.
• Multiple alternatively spliced variants of mouse Rarres2 were found in various tissues.
• RARRES2 variant expression patterns were largely unaffected by inflammatory stimuli, except in brown adipose tissue.
• Only one RARRES2 transcript variant was detected in human liver and adipose tissue.

Conclusions:

• Alternative splicing has a limited role in generating chemerin isoform diversity.
• The identified RARRES2 variants and their expression patterns provide insights into chemerin regulation.