In searching for a tumor suppressor gene in the 3p21.3 region, we isolated two genes, RBM5 and RBM6. Sequence analysis indicated that these genes share similarity. RBM5 and-to a lesser extent-RBM6 als Show more
In searching for a tumor suppressor gene in the 3p21.3 region, we isolated two genes, RBM5 and RBM6. Sequence analysis indicated that these genes share similarity. RBM5 and-to a lesser extent-RBM6 also have similarity to DXS8237E at Xp11.3-11.23, which maps less than 20 kb upstream of UBE1. A homologue of UBE1, UBE1L, is located at 3p21. 3. FISH analysis showed that the distance between UBE1L and RBM5 in 3p21.3 is about 265 kb. DXS8237E and UBE1 on the X chromosome have the same orientation, whereas on chromosome 3 the orientation of RBM5 and that of RBM6 are opposite to the orientation of UBE1L. Presumably, part of the Xp11.3-11.23 region has duplicated to chromosome 3. Part of this region on chromosome 3 may subsequently have duplicated again within the same chromosomal region. Inversion at some stage of the evolution of the human genome would explain the change in orientation of the genes on chromosome 3 compared with that of the genes on the X chromosome. Show less
In the search for a tumour suppressor gene in the 3p21.3 region we isolated two genes, RBM5 and RBM6. Gene RBM5 maps to the region which is homozygously deleted in the small cell lung cancer cell line Show more
In the search for a tumour suppressor gene in the 3p21.3 region we isolated two genes, RBM5 and RBM6. Gene RBM5 maps to the region which is homozygously deleted in the small cell lung cancer cell line GLC20; RBM6 crosses the telomeric breakpoint of this deletion. Sequence comparison revealed that at the amino acid level both genes show 30% identity. They contain two zinc finger motifs, a bipartite nuclear signal and two RNA binding motifs, suggesting that the proteins for which RBM5 and RBM6 are coding have a DNA/RNA binding function and are located in the nucleus. Northern and Southern analysis did not reveal any abnormalities. By SSCP analysis of 16 lung cancer cell lines we found only in RBM5 a single presumably neutral mutation. By RT-PCR we demonstrated the existence of two alternative splice variants of RBM6, one including and one excluding exon 5, in both normal lung tissue and lung cancer cell lines. Exclusion of exon 5 results in a frameshift which would cause a truncated protein of 520 amino acids instead of 1123 amino acids. In normal lung tissue, the relative amount of the shorter transcript was much greater than that in the lung tumour cell lines, which raises the question whether some tumour suppressor function may be attributed to the derived shorter protein. Show less