title: The BRC repeats are conserved in mammalian BRCA2 proteins.
abstract: The breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2 encodes a protein of 3418 amino acids which does not exhibit substantial sequence similarity to any other protein in the public databases. A dot matrix comparison of BRCA2 with itself revealed an eight times repeated motif in the segment of the protein encoded by exon 11. As a preliminary test of the hypothesis that these motifs are functionally significant, we have sequenced exon 11 of BRCA2 in six mammals. An alignment of the predicted protein sequences shows that, overall, the motifs have been conserved while much of the intervening sequences has diverged. These data support the notion that the BRC motifs are important in BRCA2 function. There is, however, considerable interspecies variation within certain motif units, raising the possibility of redundancy and that not all of the repeats are required for the normal function of BRCA2.
authors.affiliation: Section of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, UK.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bignell
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Micklem
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Stratton
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ashworth
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wooster
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D024682:BRCA2 Protein; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D006224:Cricetinae; D004247:DNA; D004285:Dogs; D005091:Exons; D000882:Haplorhini; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013552:Swine; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D024682:BRCA2 Protein; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; D004247:DNA