A novel calcium channel Cavβ splice variant with unique properties predominates in the retina.

Cavβ subunits are essential for surface expression of voltage-gated calcium channel complexes and crucially modulate biophysical properties like voltage-dependent inactivation. Here, we describe the discovery and characterization of a novel Cavβ variant with distinct features that predominates in the retina. We determined spliced exons in retinal transcripts of the Cacnb2 gene, coding for Cavβ, by RNA-Seq data analysis and quantitative PCR.