ISOLATION, CDNA, AND GENOMIC STRUCTURE OF A CONSERVED GENE (NOF) AT CHROMOSOME 11Q13 NEXT TO FAU AND ORIENTED IN THE OPPOSITE TRANSCRIPTIONAL ORIENTATION

In our effort to characterize a gene at chromosome 11q13 involved in a t(11;17)(q13;q21) translocation in B-non-Hodgkin lymphoma, we have id entified a novel human gene, NOF (Neighbour of FAU), It maps right nex t to FAU in a head to head configuration separated by a maximum of 146 nucleotides. cDNA clones representing NOF hybridized to a 2.2-kb mRNA present in all tissues tested. The largest open reading frame appeare d to contain 166 amino acids and is proline rich, and the sequence sho ws no homology with any known gene in the public databases. The NOF ge ne consists of 4 exons and 3 introns spanning approximately 5 kb, and the boundaries between exons and introns follow the GT/AG rule. The NO F locus is conserved during evolution, with the predicted protein havi ng over 80% identity to three translated mouse and rat ESTs of unknown function. Moreover, the mouse ESTs map in the same organization, clos ely linked to the FAU gene, in the mouse genome, NOF, however, is not affected by the t(11;17)(q13;q21) chromosomal translocation. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.