A novel RING finger-B box-coiled-coil protein, GERP

The RING finger domain occurs in a wide variety of proteins involved in cel lular regulation. The polymerase chain reaction was used to search for nove l RING finger proteins, using primers derived from expressed sequence tags (ests). A cDNA encoding a novel RING linger protein expressed in brain, lun g, breast, placenta, kidney, muscle, and germinal center B cells is describ ed. The human gene is expressed in a variety of tumors, including anaplasti c oligodendroglioma and maps to chromosome 10q24.3, a region showing freque nt deletion or loss of heterozygosity in glioblastomas. It was therefore de signated glioblastoma expressed RING finger protein (GERP). GERP contains a n N-terminal RING finger, followed by two B-boxes and a coiled-coil, and th us belongs to the RBCC subfamily of RING finger proteins. The structure of this protein and its mapping to a locus thought to harbor tumor suppressor genes indicates that it may be a new tumor suppressor gene important in gli omas and other malignancies. (C) 2000 Academic Press.