Identification of a Brain- and Reproductive-Organs-Specific Gene Responsive to DNA Damage and Retinoic Acid

• Published in: Biochemical and biophysical research communications 1995-01, Vol.206 (2), p.764-774
• Main Authors: Li, L., Yoo, H.Y., Becker, F.F., Aliosman, F., Chan, J.Y.H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Base Sequence; Brain - drug effects; Brain - metabolism; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell; Cell Line; Cloning, Molecular; DNA Damage - genetics; Female; Fibroblasts - drug effects; Fibroblasts - metabolism; Fibroblasts - radiation effects; Gene Expression - radiation effects; Genitalia - metabolism; Glioma; Humans; Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute; Male; Molecular Sequence Data; Nerve Tissue Proteins - biosynthesis; Nerve Tissue Proteins - genetics; Organ Specificity; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Tretinoin - pharmacology; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Ultraviolet Rays
• ISSN: 0006-291X; 1090-2104
• DOI: 10.1006/bbrc.1995.1108

We have identified and sequenced a new gene from human cells that is responsive to DNA damage and retinoic acid treatment, and it is highly expressed in brain and reproductive organs (BRE). This BRE gene encodes an mRNA of 1.7-1.9 kb, with an open reading frame of 1,149 bp, and gives rise to a deduced polypeptide of 383 amino acid residues. Treatment of fibroblast cell with UV and 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide caused more than 90 % and 50 % decreases in BRE mRNA, respectively. Similar decreases in BRE expression were observed in RA-treatment of the brain glioma cell U-251 and the promyelocytic cell HL-60. Decrease in BRE mRNA was also observed in a squamous carcinoma cell, 1483, that showed X-ray resistance and has a more aggressive tumorigenic phenotype, but BRE expression was unchanged in cells after growth inhibition. These data indicate that BRE is a house-keeping gene and it may play a role in homeostatis or in certain pathways of differentiation in cells of neural, epithelial and germ line origins.