CHARACTERIZATION OF THE RAT AND MOUSE HOMOLOGS OF THE BRCA2 BREAST-CANCER SUSCEPTIBILITY GENE

Inherited BRCA2 mutations confer profound susceptibility to human brea st and ovarian cancer, The rat and mouse Brca2 homologues share 58% an d 59% identity (72% similarity), respectively, with the human BRCA2 pr otein, The Brca2 proteins also share a potential nuclear localization signal (human codons 3263-3269) and a highly conserved large carboxyl region (77% identity, 86% similarity between human and rodents) that m ay represent important functional domains, At least sis of eight previ ously described BRC repeats have been highly conserved in rats and mic e, Expression studies demonstrate an 11-12 Kb transcript with rodent t issue-specific patterns of expression consistent with human BRCA2. The se results will facilitate studies of Brca2 function during normal and neoplastic development.