CHARACTERIZATION OF GLYPICAN-5 AND CHROMOSOMAL LOCALIZATION OF HUMAN GPC5, A NEW MEMBER OF THE GLYPICAN GENE FAMILY

The four vertebrate glypican-related integral membrane proteoglycans i dentified so far constitute a discrete family of heparan sulfate prote oglycans that are linked to the cell surface via glycosyl phosphatidyl inositol. In addition to the GPI anchor and substitution with heparan sulfate, the members of this family show significant sequence homology and share a unique and characteristic cysteine motif. Starting from a n EST entry that showed significant sequence similarity to MXR7 and OC I-5 (coding, respectively, for human and rat glypican-3), we have isol ated a human cDNA coding for glypican-5, a novel member of this proteo glycan family. The gene for this novel glypican (GPC5) maps to 13q32. In the adult, it is primarily expressed in brain tissue. (C) 1997 Acad emic Press