Electrophoretic variants of cardiac myosin heavy chain-α in Sprague!Dawley rats

Analysis of cardiac myosin revealed differences in gel electrophoretic migration patterns of the alpha-isoform of myosin heavy chain, but not the beta-isoform, in Sprague Dawley rats. No differences in the migration patterns of the alpha- or beta-isoforms were observed in other rat strains. Three electrophoretic migration patterns of the alpha-isoforms were observed in individual rats: a slower migrating isoform alone (4% of all rats tested), a faster migrating isoform alone (55%), and both isoforms (41%). The isoform expression pattern was identical in all myocardial regions in each rat. Frequency of expression patterns suggests multiple gene sequences for alpha-cardiac myosin heavy chain in Sprague Dawley rats. Sequence analysis of amplified regions of the Sprague Dawley and Brown Norway rat alpha-myosin genes, specifically the 5'-untranslated region, exons 1-3, and associated introns, showed numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms in coding and noncoding regions, including putative regulatory sites in Sprague Dawley rats, but not in Brown Norway rats. All Sprague Dawley rats varied from Brown Norway rats and no heterogeneity was observed in Brown Norway rats. Several deletions and dimorphic positions were also observed. Dimorphic positions were evident on automated sequencing comparisons. The data indicate that at least two alpha-myosin heavy chain isoforms exist in Sprague Dawley rats and these rats exhibit sequence diversity within that portion of the alpha-myosin heavy chain gene reported in this study.