Cloning of the rat aortic smooth muscle Na+/Ca2+ exchanger and tissue-specific expression of isoforms

The amino acid sequences of two isoforms of the rat aortic smooth muscle Na+/Ca2+ exchanger have been deduced by cloning and sequencing the cDNAs. These isoforms are identical in nucleotide sequence except that one has a 23-amino acid insertion at amino acid position 570. They are highly homologous to the canine cardiac exchanger except for the NH2-terminal portion and part of the large central hydrophilic domain (amino acid residues 570-631). They are 902 and 925 (with the insertion) amino acid long with calculated molecular masses of 100,676 and 103,200 (with the insertion), respectively, if the NH2-terminal 32-amino acid residues are eliminated as a cleaved signal sequence. Amplification of the variable region (amino acids 570-631) of the exchanger by means of the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing revealed that many isoforms of the exchanger are expressed in different rat tissues. The two clones isolated in this study are the predominant isoforms expressed in aorta, stomach, liver, and kidney. In cardiac and skeletal muscles, another isoform is dominant, which is equivalent to the canine cardiac exchanger. In brain, a third type is predominantly expressed. Alignment of the nucleotide sequences of these isoforms and Southern blot analysis of rat genomic DNA suggested that each isoform is generated through alternative splicing of the primary transcript.