Category
Life Science (Ecology, Evolution, Molecular Biology, Biomedical)
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Steven Ebert
Faculty Mentor Primary Department
Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences
Year of Presentation
2020
Project Abstract, Summary, or Creative Statement
Phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (Pnmt) is the final enzyme involved in the synthesis of epinephrine. The Pnmt gene has three exons and two introns. The spliced Pnmt isoform is intronless. A developmental tissue-specific alternative splicing mechanism of Pnmt via intron retention has been hypothesized. The alternatively spliced Pnmt isoform retains intron two. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the specific tissues and periods of development during which this intron-retained Pnmt isoform was expressed to provide a comprehensive blueprint of Pnmt isoform expression and localization throughout mouse neural development. Our results reveal a shift in expression from the spliced intronless mRNA species during postnatal day 9 (P9) to the alternatively spliced intron-retained mRNA species during postnatal day 30 (P30) in the brainstem and cerebellum. This isoform switch did not occur in the cerebral cortex between P9 and P30, and adrenal glands expressed the intronless Pnmt isoform throughout postnatal development. These results suggest tissue-specific regulation resulting in the downregulation of the intronless mRNA species and expression of the intron-retained mRNA species between P9 and P30. Further studies are needed to determine the enzymatic function of the protein produced from the intron-retained mRNA species to understand its role in the developing brainstem and cerebellum. These findings provide a more complete understanding of the tissue-specific alternative splicing mechanism involved in the developmental regulation of Pnmt mRNA species expression.
Keywords
Pnmt, isoform, mouse, neural development, development, embryo, intron
Included in
Developmental Neuroscience Commons, Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Commons, Systems Neuroscience Commons
Tissue-Specific Regulation of Pnmt by Intron Retention During Neural Development