CHARACTERIZATION OF A MAMMALIAN CDNA-ENCODING A PROTEIN WITH HIGH SEQUENCE SIMILARITY TO THE DROSOPHILA REGULATORY PROTEIN RHOMBOID

The Drosophila regulatory protein Rhomboid has been demonstrated genet ically to facilitate signalling within the Spitz/epidermal growth fact or receptor/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Using a polymera se chain reaction (PCR)based strategy, we have cloned a human cDNA whi ch encodes a protein that has high sequence similarity to Rhomboid, Th e encoded protein, termed rhomboid-related protein (RRP), is predicted to contain seven transmembrane domains. Northern analysis indicates t hat RRP mRNA is expressed at highest levels in brain and kidney. (C) 1 998 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.