A putative serine/threonine kinase encoding gene BTAK on chromosome 20q13 is amplified and overexpressed in human breast cancer cell lines.
DNA amplification on chromosome 20q13 is commonly detected in breast cancer and correlates with poor prognosis. Definitive critical target genes on this amplicon have however, not yet been identified. We describe in this paper isolation of a novel gene named BTAK, encoding a putative member of protein serine/threonine kinase family localized on chromosome 20q13 that is amplified and overexpressed in breast tumor cell lines. BTAK maps close to the critical region of amplification defined earlier on this amplicon. Deduced amino acid sequence shows conservation of all the subdomains predicted in protein kinase super family. Translated BTAK peptide shows significant homology with previously cloned protein serine/threonine kinase encoding genes Ip11 from S cerevisae and aurora from Drosophila, both shown to be functionally involved in normal chromosome segregation process. Our findings suggest that amplification and overexpression of BTAK may be playing a critical role in oncogenic transformation of breast tumor cells.
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Division of Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030-4095, USA.
Zhou
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D018244:Chromosomes, Artificial, Yeast; D002890:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 20; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D005784:Gene Amplification; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D006822:Hybrid Cells; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012377:Rodentia; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D015003:Yeasts / Q000235:genetics
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases