Recently, genome-wide association studies have identified a strong association 
between the ZBTB38 locus and human height. In a functional study, we detected 
two RT-PCR products of ZBTB38, amplified with primers in exons 7 and 8 from a 
chondrocyte cell line, C-28/I2. Sequencing revealed that the longer product 
contained an Alu segment in intron 7 of ZBTB38, which contained a potential 
splicing acceptor site that likely was used to generate the alternative 
transcript. Insertion of the Alu segment changed the consensus Kozak sequence of 
the ZBTB38 transcript, potentially altering translational efficiency. We 
performed RT-PCR using 16 tissue samples from humans and 8 tissue samples from 
primates to determine any tissue specificity or evolutionary conservation of the 
alternative splicing. Although we failed to identify any difference among the 
tissues, all primate samples expressed only the shorter Alu segment (lacking the 
transcript), suggesting that the alternative splicing event is hominid 
primate-specific.