Alternative processing of H-2Dd pre-mRNAs results in membrane expression of differentially phosphorylated protein products.

Two distinct mRNA species encoding the mouse major histocompatibility antigen H-2Dd have been identified in BALB/c spleen cells as well as in cultured cell lines expressing this cell surface glycoprotein. The alternate transcripts of H-2Dd arise from either removal or inclusion of exon VII (encoding I2) during pre-mRNA processing. The relative levels of each kind of H-2Dd transcript varied considerably between different cell types, and in all cells examined both forms of alloantigen were expressed on the cell membrane. Antigen derived from both types of transcript reacted with H-2Dd-specific monoclonal antibodies, whereas only protein lacking the 13 amino acids of I2 reacted with a specific antiserum raised against a predicted exon VI/VIII fusion peptide. Those H-2Dd proteins translated from full length, but not smaller, transcripts were phosphorylated in resting and phorbol myristate acetate-stimulated BALB/c spleen cells, suggesting that the major site of in vivo phosphorylation is within the highly conserved sequence encoded by exon VII. Thus alternative splicing of pre-mRNA transcripts is a mechanism which leads to membrane expression of two forms of H-2Dd, one of which lacks a major site of phosphorylation.