Functional studies of the 5′-untranslated region of human 5-HT 4 receptor mRNA

Abstract

The serotonin 5-HT4 receptor (where 5-HT stands for 5-hydroxytryptamine) is a member of the seven transmembrane-spanning G-protein-coupled family of receptors and mediates many cellular functions both in the central nervous system and at the periphery. In the present study, we isolated and characterized the 5′-flanking region of the h5-HT4 (human 5-HT4) receptor. We demonstrate the existence of a novel exon that corresponds to the 5′-untranslated region of the h5-HT4 receptor gene. RNase protection analysis and reverse transcriptase-PCR experiments performed on human atrial RNA demonstrated that the major transcription start site of the h5-HT4 receptor gene is located at -3185 bp relative to..