Identification by molecular cloning of two forms of the α-subunit of the human liver stimulatory (G s) regulatory component of adenylyl cyclase

Two DNA molecules complementary to human liver mRNA coding for the α-subunit of the stimulatory regulatory component G sof adenylyl cyclase were cloned. One of the two forms is a full-length cDNA of 1614 nucleotides plus a poly(A) tail of 59 nucleotides. The deduced sequence of 394 amino acids encoded by its open reading frame is essentially identical to that of the α-subunits of G sidentified by molecular cloning from bovine adrenals, bovine brain and rat brain. Two independent clones of the other type of cDNA were isolated. Both were incomplete, beginning within the open reading frame coding for the α spolypeptide. One codes for amino acids 5 through 394 and the other for amino acids 48 through 394 of the above described cDNA of 1614 nucleotides, and both have the identical 3'-untranslated sequence. They differ from the first cDNA, however, in that they lack a stretch of 42 nucleotides (numbers 214 through 255) and have nucleotides 213 (G) and 256 (G) replaced with C and A, respectively. This results in a predicted amino acid composition of another α-subunit of G sthat is shorter by 14 amino acids and contains two substitutions (Asp for Glu and Ser for Gly) at the interface between the deletion and the unchanged sequence. We call the smaller subunit α s1and the larger α s2. This is the first demonstration of a structural heterogeneity in α s, subunits that is due to a difference in amino acid sequence.