CHARACTERIZATION OF 4 NOVEL CAG REPEAT-CONTAINING CDNAS

Stretches of CAG nucleotides coding for the amino acid glutamine are a n important feature of many transcription factors and genes that are i nvolved in neurodegenerative disorders. In an attempt to isolate CAG r epeat-containing cDNAs expressed in nervous tissue, we screened a huma n fetal brain cDNA library with a probe containing a CAG repeat. Five different clones were characterized and found to contain CAG repeats. Sequence data revealed that four of these cDNAs were derived from nove l genes. These cDNAs were designated CAG6, CAG12, CAG24, and CAG40 and were found to correspond to transcripts of 5.0, 7.5, 4.4, and 15 kb, respectively. The genes encoding CAG6, CAG12, CAG24, and CAG40 were as signed to chromosomes 12, 16, X, and 12, respectively. For the 5th gen e, CAG26/pRHpA, a localization on two different chromosomes was establ ished: 16 and X. None of the repeats showed any length polymorphisms i n human DNA. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.