GDNFOS

Primate-specific genes and isoforms could provide insight into human brain diseases. A novel GDNFOS gene was found to be transcribed from the opposite strand of GDNF gene only in primate genomes. GDNFOS gene has four exons that are spliced into different isoforms. GDNFOS1 and 2 are long-non coding RNAs and GDNFOS3 encodes a protein of 105 amino acids that was found only in human and chimpanzee. Western blot analysis demonstrated that GDNFOS3 peptide is specifically expressed in human brain extract and cell lines and not in rat brain and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line.

GenBank accession numbers: JF824129 for GDNFOS-3, JF824130 for GDNFOS-1, and JF824131 for GDNFOS-2.