Sequence and characterization of the complete human thrombospondin 2 cDNA: potential regulatory role for the 3' untranslated region.

We report the remainder of the cDNA sequence for human thrombospondin 2 (hTSP2) including the 5' and 3' untranslated regions. The homology between the two human thrombospondins is highest at the carboxyl-terminal end. The 5' untranslated region of hTSP2 is a GC-rich, 239-bp segment that encodes an in-frame methionine residue embedded in a Kozak consensus sequence. The 3' untranslated region is AT-rich and contains nucleotide sequences implicated in the regulation of mRNA stability. It also contains an 89-bp AT-rich segment with 92% of its nucleotides identical to the same region of the mouse TSP2 3' untranslated region, which suggests an important functional or structural property associated with this region.