Germino et al. (1992) identified a DNASE1L2 exon while sequencing a cosmid from the PKD1 region on 16p13.3. Using the sequence of this exon for RT-PCR and searches of EST databases, Rodriguez et al. (1997) cloned DNASE1L2 cDNAs. The predicted 299-amino acid DNASE1L2 protein contains a 21-amino acid signal peptide. The amino acid sequence of DNASE1L2 is 56% identical to that of DNASE1. By RT-PCR, the authors detected DNASE1L2 expression in fetal and adult brain. Using RT-PCR, Shiokawa et al. (2004) detected DNASE1L2 expression in all tissues examined except colon. Peripheral blood leukocytes showed a second DNASE1L2 transcript, and by PCR of a leukocyte cDNA library, Shiokawa et al. (2004) cloned this splice variant, which they called DNASE1L2S.