Cloning and
Characterization of fup1, A Gene
Highly -Expressed in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
PAN Wei, XI Quan-Sheng, XIA Shuang-Luo, ZHAO Mu-Jun, GAN
Ren-Bao*, LI Zai-Ping
( Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes of
Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031,
China )
Abstract Primary
hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) is one of the common malignant tumors in China.
In our previous work, a gene named fup1(function unknown protein 1)
was isolated that was expressed differently in HCC and in normal liver. We
assumed that it might be a candidate oncogene for the HCC. The fup1
gene had a ORF of 1 233 bp, encoding a protein with Mr of
46 kD and isoelectric point of 5.48. The sequence characteristics showed its
possible localization in nuclei.Northern blots showed that this gene was weakly
expressed in many types of human tissues, except in the heart, implying its
tissue-specific expression pattern.MTT assay of the NIH 3T3 cells transfected
with this gene in the form of recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmid showed
its enhancing role to cellular proliferation.
Key words hepatocellular carcinoma； fup1； cloning； tissue specificity； transfection
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