Alternate splicing at the 3'-end of the human pancreatic tumor-associated mucin MUC4 cDNA.

MUC4 is a membrane-bound mucin and is considered as the human homologue of the rat sialomucin complex (SMC). The deduced structural organization of the wild type-MUC4 cDNA (WT-MUC4) sequence revealed two subunits: a large amino mucin type subunit (MUC4alpha) and a transmembrane subunit (MUC4beta). MUC4beta is a membrane-bound growth factor like subunit and contains three EGF-like domains. The MUC4 gene is expressed in several normal tissues like trachea, lung, and testis. It is not expressed in a normal human pancreas; however, its dysregulation results in high levels of expression in pancreatic tumors and tumor cell lines. Recently, we have demonstrated the presence of alternative splice events in the 3'-end of the MUC4 cDNA that generated new putative variants (sv1-sv10) in normal human testis and in a pancreatic tumor cell line (HPAF). In search of MUC4 variant(s) that are specific to pancreatic adenocarcinoma, we investigated the splicing phenomena in the MUC4 cDNA sequence by using a large panel of pancreatic tumor cell lines. We have identified ten alternative splice events located downstream to the central large tandem repeat domain. These splice events generated 12 variant species (sv4, sv9, sv10-18, and sv21) of MUC4 cDNAs. The deduced amino acid sequence of these variant MUC4 cDNAs revealed two distinct types: a family of secreted and a membrane-associated variant form. Among the members of MUC4 secreted variant family, three (sv4, sv12, and sv13) of ten showed a short 144 residue COOH-terminus compared to 1154 residues in WT-MUC4. The variants with this short COOH-terminus (144 residues) was found in 37% (4/11) of the tumor lines. The putative membrane-bound variant sv10 was detected in 37% (4/11) pancreatic tumor cell lines but not in any normal human tissues. In conclusion, we have identified novel splice variant(s) of MUC4 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.