CLONING, CHROMOSOMAL LOCALIZATION, AND TISSUE EXPRESSION OF AUTOTAXINFROM HUMAN TERATOCARCINOMA CELLS

Autotaxin. a potent human tumor cell motility-stimulating exophosphodi esterase, was isolated and cloned from the human teratocarcinoma cell line NTera2D1. The deduced amino acid sequence for the teratocarcinoma autotaxin has 94% identity to the melanoma-derived protein, 90% ident ity to rat brain phosphodiesterase I/nucleotide pyrophosphatase (PD-I alpha), and 44% identity to the plasma cell membrane marker PC-1. Util izing polymerase chain reaction screening of the CEPH YAC library, we localized the autotaxin gene to human chromosome 8q23-24. Northern blo t analysis of relative mRNA from multiple human tissues revealed that autoraxin mRNA steady state expression is most abundant in brain, plac enta, ovary, and small intestine. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.