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Figure 4 Function of CHGA 3'-UTR Variants

(A) Sequence alignment of the CHGA 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) across different species. 3'-UTR sequences are aligned across 7 species, to illustrate conservation at positions of 3 naturally occurring human polymorphisms: C+87T (C11825T), C+96T (C11834T), and C+274T (C12012T). (B) Human CHGA naturally occurring 3'-UTR variants: effects on transfected reporter gene expression in chromaffin cells. The 3'-UTR variants tested were: C+87T (C11825T), C+96T (C11834T), and C+274T (C12012T). Results of luciferase activity measurements 24 h after transfection of the 4 versions of the 407-bp CHGA 3'-UTR (wild type [W-T] and 3 variants) into chromaffin cells. Results are expressed as the ratio of firefly luciferase/Renilla luciferase (encoded by the transfection efficiency plasmid pRL-TK). Each experiment was performed in triplicate, and such experiments were repeated at least twice. The W-T contains the major (C) allele at all 3 positions. Variant constructs contain the minor (T) allele at the indicated position, but the major (C) at the 2 other positions.