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DDC‐4, an apoptosis‐associated gene, is a secreted frizzled relative
Author(s) -
Wolf Vladimir,
Ke Guo,
Dharmarajan A.M,
Bielke Wolfgang,
Artuso Livia,
Saurer Susanne,
Friis Robert
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(97)01324-0
Subject(s) - frizzled , biology , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , complementary dna , differential display , open reading frame , subfamily , homology (biology) , cdna library , genetics , peptide sequence , wnt signaling pathway
The differential display method has been used in our laboratory as a coincidence analysis to isolate genes expressed in common in each of three different rat tissues undergoing physiological apoptosis: mammary gland, ovarian corpus luteum and ventral prostate. The most interesting of these isolates, DDC‐4, shows a clear association with apoptosis, its expression being confined to these three organs, and only during their involution. Using DDC‐4 as probe, we screened a rat ovarian cDNA library to obtain full‐length isolates. One isolate, Y81 clone 40, gives rise to a protein of approximately 40 kDa with coupled in vitro transcription/translation. Sequencing of this clone indicates an open reading frame of 1044 nucleotides encoding a protein of 39.7 kDa with a putative signal sequence. This clone exhibits a high homology with the cysteine‐rich domain, i.e. the ligand‐binding domain, of the frizzled gene family originally defined as tissue polarity genes in Drosophila . The homology of Y81 clone 40 is most extensive with the newly described secreted frizzled relatives, the frzb subfamily.