We compared the gene expression patterns of fetal and adult
porcine brains and identified a sequence tag that was more abundant
in adult than in fetal brain. The RNA corresponding to the sequence
tag has the highest expression level in adult cerebellum. Lower
expression levels of the transcript were found in adult cerebrum,
pituitary, and uterus, as well as in fetal brain, heart, intestine,
kidney, and liver. The sequence tag was used to screen a cDNA
library from adult porcine brain. Two independent clones of
2,273 nt and 1,701 nt were isolated. The shorter cDNA is a
5′-truncated form of the longer clone, and both clones
have almost identical sequences with multiple start and stop
codons in all three reading frames. Screening of two different
human brain cDNA libraries with porcine cDNA probes resulted
in four overlapping cDNA fragments, which were assembled to
one contig of 2,336 nt in length. Like noncoding RNAs, the porcine
and human sequences have no common conserved open reading frame
and share stretches of high homology interrupted by stretches
with almost no homology. The human and porcine RNAs were named
UM 9(5)h and UM 9(5)p, respectively. They are part of larger
transcripts, which are transcribed from single-copy genes, they
have very similar tissue distributions, and their sequences
are colinear with the respective genomic fragment.