Very limited is known about p53 expression in the normal mammalian brain and only few alternative splice variants have been reported thus far in human and rat peripheral tissues. Here, we detected eight new p53 transcripts in the human brain generated by alternative splicing, whereas two were present in the rat brain. Almost all alternative splice events occurred due to atypical splice mechanism employing direct repeats at splice sites. All discovered transcripts retain untranslated 5' area of the p53 gene and thus could be translated into peptides consisting of different functional domains. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.