Intracellular compartmentalization of two differentially spliced s-rex/NSP mRNAs in neurons.

Using a subtractive hybridization technique directed to cloning transcripts with compartmentalized distributions within cerebral cortex neurons, we have isolated rat s-rex mRNAs that are analogues of the human neuroendocrine-specific NSP gene transcripts. Differential splicing produces two main s-rex mRNA that have different regional distributions in the developing and mature rat nervous system. In certain populations of adult brain neurons, most of s-rexs, mRNA and a substantial amount of s-rexb mRNA are localized to the axonal pole of the cell body. The localization of S-Rex/NSP proteins in these neurons suggests that s-rex mRNA compartmentalization targets the encoded proteins to specific regions of the neuron.