Using as probe the entire human liver cDNA clone coding for the beta 2 subunit isoform of the Na+,K(+)-ATPase, which lacks the initiation codon ATG, and the entire 5'-untranslated region (Martin-Vasallo, P., Dackowski, W., Emanuel, J.R. and Levenson, R. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 4613-4618), we isolated a larger clone from a directional human adult retina cDNA library (Swaroop, A. and Xu, J. (1993) Cytogenet. Cell Genet. 64, 292-294). This clone, pNH beta 2, shows 100% homology with the nucleotide sequence of the human liver cDNA clone and also contains additional 407 nucleotides in the 5'-untranslated region, the initiation codon and a poly(A) tail. Northern blot hybridization analysis reveals that the human mRNA (3.6 kb) is approx. 300 nucleotides larger than the major transcript size expressed in rat (3.3 kb). The larger human size mRNA for the human beta 2 Na+,K(+)-ATPase indicates species differences in gene processing.