A 2ND P53-RELATED PROTEIN, P73L, WITH HIGH HOMOLOGY TO P73

The p53 protein, which regulates the rate of cell division and death, is the most frequently mutated tumor suppressor to be identified so fa r in human cancers. Recently, a gene with significant homology to p53, termed p73, has been identified in a chromosomal region that is impli cated in the molecular pathogenesis of neuroblastoma. We have cloned a second human p53-related gene, termed p73L, which shows strong amino- acid similarity to p73, The p73L gene is mapped to human chromosome 3q 27-28 using in situ hybridization technique. p73L encodes a protein of 586 amino acids and its putative DNA binding domain (DBD) has high id entities to those of p53 (60.6%) and to p73 (87.8%). Northern blot ana lysis, which demonstrated that the expression profiles of p73L and p73 mRNAs are distinct in some tissues, implies that p73 and p73L may hav e separate, distinct roles in different tissues. (C) 1998 Academic Pre ss.