Xenopus laevis alpha and beta thyroid hormone receptors.

The Xenopus laevis genome encodes two genes for the alpha (TR alpha) and two genes for the beta (TR beta) thyroid hormone receptors. The two TR alpha genes closely resemble their rat, human, and chicken counterparts. No alternatively spliced TR alpha cDNA clones were found in the 5' untranslated region (5' UTR). In contrast, complex alternative splicing of TR beta mRNA occurs within the 5' UTR as well as possible alternative transcriptional start sites. As many as eight exons encoding mainly the 5' UTR are alternatively spliced, giving rise to at least two amino termini for each of the two TR beta proteins. The 5' UTR of transcripts from both TR alpha and TR beta genes contain multiple AUG sequences with short open reading frames suggesting translational control mechanisms might play a role in expression of TR genes.