Patatin-like phospholipases (PNPLAs) comprise a protein family whose members contain a conserved patatin-like domain with lipid acyl hydrolase activity. The cloning and characterization of full-length cDNAs of PNPLA3 and PNPLA4 in pigs is reported and, for the first time, an alternative splicing variant of porcine PNPLA4, which skips exon 5 of the normal transcript, was identified. Subsequently, tissue expression analysis by quantitative PCR indicated that porcine PNPLA3 was mainly expressed in both adipose and liver whereas porcine PNPLA4 was abundant in liver. Porcine PNPLA3 and PNPLA4 were assigned respectively to chromosome 5p11-p15 and Xp24.