We have characterized the 5' region of the CALLA/CD10 gene which has been shown to be identical to the membrane-associated enzyme neutral endopeptidase 24.11 (NEP). There is no CAAT or TATA box in the 5' flanking region, upstream of exon 1, but a GC rich region with several Sp1 binding sites. We have detected several putative initiation transcription sites by primer extension and by nuclease S1 analysis. Moreover by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, we demonstrated the existence of a new exon: exon 1bis. This exon can be alternatively spliced as has already been described for exon 1 and exon 2.