The evolution of alternative splicing exons in vascular endothelial growth factor A

• Published in: Gene Vol. 487; no. 2; pp. 143 - 150
• Main Authors: Xu, Jiaxi, Dou, Tonghai, Liu, Cong, Fu, Maobin, Huang, Yan, Gu, Shaohua, Zhou, Yan, Xie, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 10.11.2011
• Subjects: Alternative splicing; Alternative Splicing - genetics; Alternative Splicing - physiology; Angiogenesis; Animals; Base Sequence; C-Terminus; Cats; Comparative genomics; ESE; Evolution; Evolution, Molecular; Exons; Exons - genetics; Humans; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Neovascularization, Pathologic - genetics; Pan troglodytes; Phylogeny; Polymerase chain reaction; prediction; Protein Isoforms - genetics; Rabbits; Rats; reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; Swine; Transcription; transcription (genetics); Vascular endothelial growth factor; vascular endothelial growth factor A; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A - genetics; VEGF; PVF; Alternative splicing; FIGF; HSPG; VEGF; Comparative genomics; SRp55; RRM; NRP; AS; SC35; ESE; PDGF; RT-PCR; GAPDH; PlGF; snRNP; ERK
• ISSN: 0378-1119; 1879-0038
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2011.06.024

The C-terminus alternative splicing in VEGFA (vascular endothelial growth factor A) is known for its impact on physiological and pathological angiogenesis. Based on our prediction and RT-PCR verification, we identified anti-angiogenic VEGFA165b isoforms in mouse and rabbit for the first time. We also found that the relative expression level of VEGFA165b isoform had been increasing from rodents to human, and exon8b may have experienced a minor-to-major form exon conversion, possibly correlated with its gain-of-function. It is suggested that introduction of alternative splicing exons (esp. exon6 and exon8b) made important contributions to the transcriptional diversity of VEGFA and played a crucial role in the evolution of its regulatory mechanism.