Characterization of five novel human genes in the 11q13-q22 region

The redundancy of sequences in dbEST has approached a level where contiguou s cDNA sequences of genes can be assembled, without the need to physically handle the clones from which the ESTs are derived. This is termed EST based in silico gene cloning. With the availability of sequence chromatogram fil es for a subset of ESTs, the quality of EST sequences can be ascertained ac curately and used in contig assembly. In this report, we performed a study using this approach and isolated five novel human genes, C11orf1-C11orf5, i n the 11q13-q22 region. The full open reading frames of these genes were de termined by comparison with their orthologs, of which four mouse orthologs were isolated (c11orf1, c11orf2, c11orf3 and c11orf5). These genes were the n analyzed using several proteomics tools. Both C11orf1 and C11orf2 are nuc lear proteins with no other distinguishing features. C11orf3 is a cytoplasm ic protein containing an ATP/GTP binding site, a signal peptide located in the N-terminus and a similarity to the C. elegans protein "Probable ARP 2/3 complex 20kD subunit." C11orf4 is a peptide which displays four putative t ransmembrane domains and is predicted to have a cytoplasmic localization. I t contains signal peptides at the N- and C-termini. C11orf5 is a putative n uclear protein displaying a central coiled coil domain. Here, we propose th at this purely EST-based cloning approach can be used by modestly sized lab oratories to rapidly and accurately characterize and map a significant numb er of human genes without the need of further sequencing. (C) 2000 Academic Press.