IDENTIFICATION OF A GENE CONTAINING ZINC-FINGER MOTIFS BASED ON LOST EXPRESSION IN MALIGNANTLY TRANSFORMED RAT OVARIAN SURFACE EPITHELIAL-CELLS

We have used a rat model of epithelial ovarian cancer to identify a ge ne that shows decreased or lost expression in five of eight independen tly transformed rat ovarian surface epithelial cell lines compared to the normal progenitor cells, Hence, we refer to this gene as Lot1 (los t on transformation 1; GenBank accession no, U72620), The most abundan t transcript of the gene is similar to 6 kb, This sequence contains a 1749-nucleotide open reading frame and, within the 3' untranslated reg ion, 22 near-perfect 60-70-bp repeats and adenine- and uracil-rich are as, The deduced amino acid sequence from the open reading frame contai ns seven zinc-finger motifs of the C2H2 type, as well as proline-, glu tamine-, and glutamic acid-rich areas, The gene maps to the short arm of chromosome one in the rat, Lot1 shows a limited distribution of exp ression in normal rat tissues, including ovary, which shows abundant e xpression, Furthermore, examination of DNA derived from multiple speci es indicates that the gene is widely conserved.