Trout and chicken proglucagon: alternative splicing generates mRNA transcripts encoding glucagon-like peptide 2.

In mammals, the proglucagon gene is transcribed into a single identical mRNA in pancreas, intestine, and brain. The proglucagon mRNA encodes glucagon and two glucagon-like peptides (GLP 1 and GLP 2), whose production is regulated by tissue-specific proteolytic processing. Previously characterized pancreatic proglucagon cDNAs from birds and fish encode glucagon and only one glucagon-like peptide, GLP 1. The isolation of intestinal proglucagon cDNAs from the rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, and chicken, Gallus gallus, shows that the proglucagon gene of fish and birds also contains the sequence of a second glucagon-like peptide, GLP 2. In contrast to the proglucagon mRNAs from mammals, fish and bird proglucagon mRNAs from pancreas and intestine have different 3'-ends that are due to alternative mRNA splicing. The intestinal mRNA was found to be spliced to one or more exons, which encode GLP 2, while the pancreatic mRNA terminates within the intron between the exons encoding GLP 1 and GLP 2. These results show that proglucagon gene expression is regulated at the level of mRNA splicing and serve to reemphasize the potential biological importance of GLP 2.