To date, seven different human histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been ident
ified, which fall into two distinct classes. We have isolated and character
ized a cDNA encoding a novel human HDAC, which we name HDAC8, HDAC8 shows a
high degree of sequence similarity to HDAC1 and HDAC2 and thus belongs to
the class I of HDACs. HDAC8 is expressed in a variety of tissues. Human cel
ls overexpressing HDAC8 localize the protein in sub-nuclear compartments wh
ereas HDAC1 shows an even nuclear distribution. In addition, the HDAC8 gene
is localized oil the X chromosome at position q13, which is close to the X
IST gene and chromosomal breakpoints associated with preleukemia. (C) 2000
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