Organization of gene structure and expression of nuclear factor 1 family in rat.

The nuclear factor 1 (NF1) family proteins are encoded by four different genes (Nfia, Nfib, Nfic and Nfix) and regulate gene expression and DNA replication. All four genes bear many splicing isoforms, but the biological function of each of them awaits further characterization. We have previously isolated several splicing variant cDNAs derived from four NF1 genes of rat, and elucidated the structure of the rat Nfia gene. In this study, we determined the genomic organization and nucleotide sequences of the exon/intron boundaries of the rat Nfib, Nfic and Nfix genes in silico. We also constructed plasmids including entire open reading frames (ORFs) of NF1 isoforms and verified the expression of them in vitro. This information is made available for the production of NF1 knockout animals and expression of NF1 isoforms in vivo to elucidate the physiological function of NF1 proteins and to reveal the functional differences between NF1 splicing variants.