We have shown previously that the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor mRNA of approximately 16,000 nucleotides codes 5,037 amino acid residues constituting the calcium release channel in skeletal muscle. In this study, RNA blot hybridization analysis shows that the brain contains an RNA species with an estimated size of approximately 2,400 nucleotides hybridizable with the 3'-terminal region of the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor cDNA. cDNA cloning and genome analysis indicated that two transcripts differing in their start sites are produced from the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor gene in a tissue-specific fashion, and that the mRNA in brain may code the carboxyl-terminal region of the ryanodine receptor molecule. cDNA expression experiments suggested that the ATG triplet encoding Met4382 of the skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor can function as a translation initiation codon, and that the expressed protein composed of the carboxy terminal 656 amino acid residues of the receptor is located on the endoplasmic reticulum membrane.