Molecular cloning and characterization of human VPS18, VPS 11, VPS16, and VPS33

In multicellular organisms, the delivery of proteins to lysosomes is essent ial. Many of the genes necessary for this process have first been identifie d by their requirement for vacuolar delivery in yeast. A subset of these ge nes, the four class C vps genes, is necessary for the delivery of endocytic and biosynthetic cargo in yeast, and also in Drosophila. Here, we describe the sequence and expression pattern of four human homologs of these genes. This initial molecular description of these four genes is an important ste p towards their evaluation as candidate genes that may be involved in the p athogenesis of Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome-related diseases. (C) 2001 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.