A novel giant gene CSMD3 encoding a protein with CUB and sushi multiple domains: a candidate gene for benign adult familial myoclonic epilepsy on human chromosome 8q23.3-q24.1

We identified a novel giant gene encoding a transmembrane protein with CUB and sushi multiple domains on the human chromosome 8q23.3-q24.1 in which benign adult familial myoclonic epilepsy type 1 (BAFME1/FAME, OMIM:601068) has been mapped. This giant gene consists of 73 exons and spans over 1.2Mb on the genomic DNA region. It showed significant homology to two genes, CSMD1 gene on 8p23 and CSMD2 gene on 1p34, at reduced amino acid sequence level and hence we designated as CSMD3. The CSMD3 gene was expressed mainly in adult and fetal brains. We performed mutation analysis on the CSMD3 gene for seven patients with BAFME1/FAME, but no mutation was found in the coding sequence of the CSMD3 gene. Comparative genomic analysis revealed a conserved family of CSMD genes in the mouse and fugu genomes. Possible functions of the CSMD gene family are discussed.     

The human homolog of the rodent immediate early response genes, PC4 and TIS7, resides in the lung cancer tumor suppressor gene region on chromosome 3p21

Recently, human chromosome band 3p21.3 was shown to undergo overlapping homozygous deletions in several small cell lung cancer lines further defining a putative tumor suppressor gene(s) region. We report the cloning and mutational analysis of a novel human gene, SKMc15, from the commonly homozygously deleted region in three small cell lung cancer lines (NCI-H1450, NCI-H740, GLC20). It has 11 exons ranging in size from 50 to 541 bp with an open reading frame of 442 amino acids. The gene covers 7 to 10 kb of genomic DNA; the message of 1.8 to 2 kb is expressed in all analyzed fetal and adult human and mouse tissues including heart, brain, placenta, lung liver, skeletal muscle, kidney, testis and pancreas and in small cell and non-small cell cancer lines. The intron/exon boundaries were used to analyze the gene for mutations by exon PCR-SSCP sequencing in 60 small cell lung cancer cell lines. No loss-of-function mutations were detected. The cDNA sequence has high homology, 75% at the protein level, to the rat early response gene PC4 and its murine homolog TIS7. In addition, the known partial sequence of the putative mouse interferon β2 (64 amino acids) gene is highly conserved in PC4/TIS7 (94%) and in SKMc15 (83%) at the amino acid level. The sequence TAAAT, which is thought to be involved in mRNA degradation, is present in the 3′ UTR of SKMc15 and in the 3′ UTR of PC4 and TIS7 genes. Received: 28 August 1996 / Revised: 18 October 1996     

Coding sequence, genomic organization, chromosomal localization, and expression pattern of the signalosome component Cops2: the mouse homologue of Drosophila alien

The Drosophila alien gene is highly homologous to the human thyroid receptor interacting protein, TRIP15/COPS2, which is a component of the recently identified signalosome protein complex. We identified the mouse homologue of Drosophila alien through homology searches of the EST database. We found that the mouse cDNA encodes a predicted 443-amino-acid protein, which migrates at approximately 50 kDa. The gene for the mouse alien homologue, named Cops2, includes 12 coding exons spanning approximately 30 kb of genomic DNA on the central portion of mouse chromosome 2. Mouse Cops2 is widely expressed in embryonic, fetal, and adult tissues beginning as early as E7.5. Mouse Cops2 cDNA hybridizes to two mRNA bands in all tissues at approximately 2.3 and approximately 4 kb, with an additional approximately 1.9-kb band in liver. Immunostaining of native and epitope tagged proteins localized the mouse Cops2 protein in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus, with larger amounts in the nucleus in some cells.     

A Novel Gene, ITM, Located between p57KIP2 and IPL, Is Imprinted in Mice

We searched for new imprinted genes using a positional cloningmethod in a region of human chromosome 11p15.5, which containsseveral imprinted genes including p57^KIP2 and IPL, and founda novel ITM gene located between p57^KIP2 and IPL. We also obtainedthe mouse homologue Itm in itss yntenic region of mouse chromosome7. In humans, its location is 17 kb centromeric to p57^KIP2 and3 kb telomeric to IPL, and in mice, 15 kb and 2.5 kb, respectively.They are expressed in most tissue, but especially in the kidneyand liver, and moderately in the heart, lung and testis. Miceexhibit a functional imprinting resulting in higher expressionof maternal alleles in fetal, newborn and most adult tissues,but it is biallelically expressed in the adult kidney and liverwhere expression is the highest. In addition to the discrepancybetween the level of expression and the strength of the imprint,Itm has several unusual features for an imprinted gene, includinglarge introns, moderate GC content and the absence of directrepeats. Our results will be helpful in understanding the intricateregulatory mechanism of imprinted genes.     

Human cellular retinol-binding protein gene organization and chromosomal location

The gene encoding the human cellular retinol-binding protein (CRBP) has been isolated from genomic libraries and its structure determined. Only one copy of the gene is present in the human genome. We have located the CRBP gene to segment 3p11-3qter on human chromosome 3 using hybridizations to mouse-human, rat-human and hamster-human cell hybrids. The gene harbors four exons encoding 24, 59, 33, and 16 amino acid residues respectively. The second intervening sequence alone occupies 19 kb of the 21 kb of the CRBP gene. The nucleotide sequence of the gene has been determined with the exception of the second intron. The positions of the introns agree with those in the rat CRBPII, the rat liver fatty-acid-binding protein and the mouse adipose P2 protein genes encoding molecules belonging to the same protein family as CRBP. In contrast to the other sequenced members of this family the promoter of the CRBP gene resembles those found in the 'housekeeping' genes in that it is (G + C)-rich, contains multiple copies of the CCGCCC sequence and lacks TATA box. A 9-bp homology containing the core sequence of the simian virus 40 enhancer repeat was found in the 5' upstream region. A genomic Southern blot probed with CRBP cDNA revealed hybridizing bands in restricted chicken and frog DNA.     

Mouse and Human Neuronal Pentraxin 1 (NPTX1): Conservation, Genomic Structure, and Chromosomal Localization

We have previously identified novel members of the pentraxin family (neuronal pentraxin 1 and 2) that are expressed in the nervous system. Neuronal pentraxin 1 (NP1) was identified as a rat protein that may mediate the uptake of synaptic material and the presynaptic snake venom toxin, taipoxin. NP2 was identified as a separate gene discovered by screening for a human homolog for NP1. Here, we report human cDNA and mouse genomic DNA sequences for NP1 (gene symbol NPTX1). Human NP1 and mouse NP1 show 95 and 99% amino acid identity, respectively, with rat NP1 and conserve all potential glycosylation sites. Like rat NP1, human NP1 message is large (6.5 kb) and is exclusively localized to the nervous system. The mouse NP1 gene is 13 kb in length and contains four introns that break the coding sequence of NP1 in the same positions as the introns of the human NP2 gene. The human and mouse NP1 genes are localized to chromosome 17q25.1–q25.2 and chromosome 11e2–e1.3, respectively. These data demonstrate the existence of a separate family of pentraxin proteins that are expressed in the human brain and other tissues and that may play important roles in the uptake of extracellular material.     

Identification and localization of two mouse phosphomannomutase genes, Pmm1 and Pmm2

Phosphomannomutases catalyze the reversible conversion of mannose 6-phosphate to mannose 1-phosphate. In humans, two different isozymes have recently been identified, PMM1 and PMM2. We have previously shown that mutations in the PMM2 gene cause the most frequent type of the congenital disorders of glycosylation, CDG-Ia. Here, we present data on the two mouse orthologous genes, Pmm1 and Pmm2. The chromosomal localization of the two mouse genes has been determined. We also present the gene structure and the exon-intron organization of Pmm1 and Pmm2. Pmm1 maps to mouse chromosome 15, Pmm2 to chromosome 16. These chromosomal regions are syntenic with regions on human chromosomes 22 and 16, respectively. The Pmm1 gene is composed of eight exons and spans approximately 9.5 kb. The genomic structure is extremely well conserved between the human and mouse gene. The Pmm2 gene consists of eight exons and spans a larger genomic region (≈20 kb). An alignment of the human and mouse protein sequences confirms the conservation among this family of phosphomannomutases. The two mouse genes are expressed in many tissues, but the expression pattern is slightly different between Pmm1 and Pmm2. The most striking difference is the high expression of Pmm1 in brain tissue, whereas Pmm2 is only weakly expressed in this tissue.     

人受精促进肽受体基因（TCP11b）的剪接、克隆和差别表达

运用同源比较和PCR法 ,从人睾丸组织中分离了人受精促进肽受体TCP11基因的一个新的剪切体TCP11b ,它编码 5 0 3个氨基酸的蛋白质 ,与TCP11a相比 ,在基因组的 5′端存在复杂的外显子剪接现象。运用荧光原位杂交 (FISH)方法 ,显示该基因定位到人染色体 6p2 1。Northern杂交及多组织RT PCR的结果显示该转录本在正常睾丸中表达 ,而其他组织、无精症患者及胎儿睾丸组织中未见该基因的表达。该结果结合mTcp 11功能的提示 ,TCP11b这种转录本对精子发生和人受精过程可能起重要作用。     

A gene cluster encoding human epidermis-type lipoxygenases at chromosome 17p13.1: cloning, physical mapping, and expression

Epidermis-type lipoxygenases, a distinct subclass within the multigene family of mammalian lipoxygenases (LOX), comprise recently discovered novel isoenzymes isolated from human and mouse skin including human 15-LOX-2, human and mouse 12R-LOX, mouse 8S-LOX, and mouse e-LOX-3. We have isolated the human homologue of mouse e-LOX-3. The cDNA of 3362 bp encodes a 711-amino-acid protein displaying 89% sequence identity with the mouse protein and exhibiting the same unusual structural feature, i.e., an extra segment of 41 amino acids, which can be located beyond the N-terminal beta-barrel domain at the surface of the C-terminal catalytic domain. The gene encoding e-LOX-3, ALOXE3, was found to be part of a gene cluster of approximately 100 kb on human chromosome 17p13.1 containing in addition the 12R-LOX gene, ALOX12B, the 15-LOX-2 gene, ALOX15B, and a novel 15-LOX pseudogene, ALOX15P. ALOXE3 and ALOX12B are arranged in a head-to-tail fashion separated by 8.5 kb. The genes are split into 15 exons and 14 introns spanning 22 and 15 kb, respectively. ALOX15P was found on the opposite DNA strand directly adjacent to the 3'-untranslated region of ALOX12B. ALOX15B is located in the same orientation 25 kb downstream of ALOX12B, and is composed of 14 exons and 13 introns spanning a total of 9.7 kb of genomic sequence. RT-PCR analysis demonstrated a predominant expression of ALOXE3, ALOX12B, and ALOX15B in skin.