Reticulon 2 (RTN2)

Reticulon-2 belongs to the family of reticulon encoding genes. Reticulons are associated with the endoplasmic reticulum, and are involved in neuroendocrine secretion or in membrane trafficking in neuroendocrine cells. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been identified. The gene consists of 11 exons spanning approximately 12 kb. Northern blots of several cell lines showed RTN2 expression as mRNAs of 1.3 and 2.3 kb. RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that these bands are produced by 3 alternatively spliced cDNA variants: RTN2A (545 amino acids), RTN2B (472 amino acids), and RTN2C (205 amino acids). Northern blot analysis of human tissues revealed that the RTN2 gene is expressed in a variety of tissues, with strikingly high expression of the 1.3-kb mRNA in skeletal muscle.