A 3'-UTR variant of the inducible porcine hsp70.2 gene affects mRNA stability.

Large individual differences were observed in the abundance of transcripts from the hsp70.2 gene in primary fibroblast cultures sampled from 15 different pigs. While previously described functional promoter variants of this gene can partly account for the high variability of heat-induced increased abundance of transcripts, they are unrelated to the observed highly variable absolute amounts of hsp70.2 transcripts. Comparative sequence analysis revealed an alteration of the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) sequences in these samples. The variant 3'-UTR allele proved to increase the half life of the hsp70.2 mRNA in reporter gene assays. It is suggested that the cellular stress response is significantly affected by the action and interaction of both promoter and 3'-UTR variants of the hsp70.2 gene.