title: Cloning a novel member of the human interferon-inducible gene family associated with control of tumorigenicity in a model of human melanoma.
abstract: Chromosome 6-mediated suppression of tumorigenicity in malignant melanoma cell lines provides a model system to identify genes associated with the reversion of the tumorigenic phenotype. Using subtractive cDNA selection, we recently identified a series of novel genes which are differentially expressed in association with chromosome 6-mediated suppression. We now report the molecular characterization of a novel gene termed AIM2 for (Absent In Melanoma), which represents a 1485 bp cDNA. An open reading frame of 1032 base pairs, corresponding to 344 amino acid residues, is predicted. The predicted protein shares a conserved sequence domain of approximately 200 amino acids with known interferon-inducible genes of both human and mouse. We demonstrate that the AIM2 gene encodes a transcript of approximately 2 kb which is expressed in spleen, small intestine, and peripheral blood leukocytes. In addition, we have localized AIM2 to the long arm of human chromosome 1 (band q22) in a highly conserved region which also contains the known interferon-inducible genes IFI16 and MNDA. We have also demonstrated that, like IFI16 and MNDA, AIM2 is induced in HL60 cells by interferon gamma. Our findings support the existence of a family of genes in this region similar to the well-characterized mouse Ifi200 gene family.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Genetics, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: DeYoung
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: Y A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Anzick
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Johnstone
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Trapani
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Meltzer
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Trent
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000032:analysis*; D018922:HL-60 Cells; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008545:Melanoma / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D007371:Interferon-gamma