title: Identification of a novel gene (ECM2) encoding a putative extracellular matrix protein expressed predominantly in adipose and female-specific tissues and its chromosomal localization to 9q22.3.
abstract: We isolated by the differential display technique a novel gene that was expressed abundantly in adipose and female-specific tissues. The cDNA contained an open reading frame of 2097 nucleotides encoding a 699-amino-acid peptide. The predicted protein showed homology to several known extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins such as proteoglycan, keratocan, and decorin. Moreover, the amino acid sequence contained several possible functional domains that would participate in protein-protein interactions, including an RGD sequence, a von Willebrand factor domain (VWFC), and a leucine-rich repeat. These findings suggest that this novel protein functions in cell-cell and/or cell-ECM recognition processes. Northern blot analysis revealed expression predominantly in adipose tissue as well as female-specific organs such as mammary gland, ovary, and uterus among 20 human adult tissues examined. We assigned the gene to chromosome 9q22.3 by means of fluorescence in situ hybridization.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108, Japan.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nishiu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000737:chemistry; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002899:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9 / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014841:von Willebrand Factor / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: C115746:ECM2 protein, human; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D014841:von Willebrand Factor