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The androgen receptor (AR) is a ligand‐activated transcription factor member of the nuclear receptor superfamily. The existence of alternatively spliced variants is well recognised for several members of this superfamily, most of them having functional importance. For example, several testicular oestrogen receptor variants have been suggested to play a role in the regulation of spermatogenesis. However, information on AR variants is mostly related to cancer and androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) cases. The objective of this study was to investigate the expression of AR variants in the testis from humans and other vertebrates. Four AR variants [ARΔ2^Stop, ARΔ2^23Stop, ARΔ3 and ARΔ4(120)] were identified in human testis. ARΔ2^Stop and ARΔ3, with exon 2 or 3 deleted, respectively, were also expressed in human liver, lung, kidney and heart. In addition, ARΔ2^Stop was expressed in rat and gilthead seabream …