Organization of the neurofascin gene and analysis of developmentally regulated alternative splicing.

Neurofascin is an axonal member of the L1 subgroup of the immunoglobulin superfamily implicated in neurite extension in the course of embryonic development. Here we have isolated and characterized the gene encoding chicken neurofascin. Comparison of genomic sequences with cDNA sequences provides the structure and localization of intron/exon boundaries and indicates that neurofascin isoforms are generated by alternative splicing of its pre-mRNA. The neurofascin gene is composed of 33 exons distributed over 72 kilobases. Each of the six immunoglobulin- and five fibronectin-type III-like domains is encoded by two exons. While introns between domains are of phase 1, others are of phase 0, 1, or 2. Alternative splicing of neurofascin is developmentally regulated as shown by polymerase chain reaction analysis. Furthermore, plasmid libraries from long range polymerase chain reaction-amplified cDNA of neurofascin were used to examine and quantify the distribution of alternatively spliced exons in individual neurofascin molecules. We found 50 different neurofascin isoforms at different developmental stages and revealed the existence of one major "early" in comparison with multiple "late" neurofascin isoforms.