Figure 1

Characterization of pig Reelin. A) Schematic drawing of the pig Reelin protein. The localization of the signal peptide and the conserved CTR are indicated. The eight Reelin repeats with subdomains A and B are shown together with the localization of the EGF- repeat like subdomain. An arrow indicates the position of the alternative splices Reelin exon 64. The position of proteolytic sites in Reelin from human and a corresponding peptide sized approximately 180 kDa and 370 examined by western blotting shown beneath the sequence. B) Sequence homology analysis of the Reelin signal peptide from mouse, pig and human. Aminoacids 1 to 40 are shown. Gaps for alignment are indicated by (-). Conserved aminoacids are indicated by (:). C) Detection of alternative splicing of pig Reelin. Primers were designed specific for Reelin isoform a including exon 64 (upper panel); specific for Reelin isoform b excluding exon 64 (central panel); or GAPDH as internal control. Expression was detected by reverse transcriptase PCR with cortical cDNA from the indicated time points.