Tissue‐dependent variation in the expression of elongation factor‐1α isoforms: Isolation and characterisation of a cDNA encoding a novel variant of human elongation‐factor 1α

Abstract

A novel isoform of human elongation factor-1α (EF-1α2) has been characterised. It shows a high similarity to other EF-1α proteins, especially to a rat EF-1α variant and it has all the characteristics of a functional EF-1α protein. The pattern of expression of both EF-1α2 and EF-1α was analysed in different human tissues. This showed that the two proteins were differentially expressed, EF-1α2 was expressed in brain, heart, skeletal muscle and in the transformed cell lines AMA and K14, but was undetectable in other tissues and in both primary and transformed human fibroblasts. EF-1α was expressed in brain, placenta, lung, liver, kidney, pancreas and in all the cell lines that we have analysed but barely detectable in heart and skeletal muscle.