GENOMIC STRUCTURE AND CHROMOSOMAL LOCALIZATION OF THE GENE ENCODING TRANSLIN, A RECOMBINATION HOTSPOT BINDING-PROTEIN

Human Translin is a novel DNA end binding protein that specifically re cognizes consensus sequences at the breakpoint junctions in chromosoma l translocations, mostly involving immunoglobulin (Ig)/T-cell receptor gene segments, in human lymphoid neoplasms, We have recently cloned a full-length human Translin cDNA using peptide sequence information ob tained from the purified protein. From comparisons of the amino acid s equences in humans and other vertebrates, we conclude that Translin ha s been highly conserved during evolution, especially at the leucine zi pper motif and the basic region, which is thought to be the DNA bindin g domain. Analysis of the human and mouse Translin genes revealed that they have identical genomic structures consisting of six exons, five introns, and a GC-rich upstream region. In situ hybridization and phys ical mapping of somatic cell hybrids allowed localization of the gene to human chromosome 2q21.1. (C) 1997 Academic Press.