title: The product of the cph oncogene is a truncated, nucleotide-binding protein that enhances cellular survival to stress.
abstract: Cph was isolated from neoplastic Syrian hamster embryo fibroblasts initiated by 3-methylcholanthrene (MCA), and was shown to be a single copy gene in the hamster genome, conserved from yeast to human cells, expressed in fetal cells and most adult tissues, and acting synergistically with H-ras in the transformation of murine NIH3T3 fibroblasts. We have now isolated Syrian hamster full-length cDNAs for the cph oncogene and proto-oncogene. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that cph was activated in MCA-treated cells by a point-mutational deletion at codon 214, which caused a shift in the normal open reading frame (ORF) and brought a translation termination codon 33 amino acids downstream. While proto-cph encodes a protein (pcph) of 469 amino acids, cph encodes a truncated protein (cph) of 246 amino acids with a new, hydrophobic C-terminus. Similar mechanisms activated cph in other MCA-treated Syrian hamster cells. The cph and proto-cph proteins have partial sequence homology with two protein families: GDP/GTP exchange factors and nucleotide phosphohydrolases. In vitro translated, gel-purified cph proteins did not catalyze nucleotide exchange for H-ras, but were able to bind nucleotide phosphates, in particular ribonucleotide diphosphates such as UDP and GDP. Steady-state levels of cph mRNA increased 6.7-fold in hamster neoplastic cells, relative to a 2.2-fold increase in normal cells, when they were subjected to a nutritional stress such as serum deprivation. Moreover, cph-transformed NIH3T3 cells showed increased survival to various forms of stress (serum starvation, hyperthermia, ionizing radiation), strongly suggesting that cph participates in cellular mechanisms of response to stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Velasco
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Avila
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Notario
mesh_terms: D016475:3T3 Cells; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002384:Catalysis; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D006224:Cricetinae; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D020662:Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors; D006153:Guanosine Diphosphate; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate; D008647:Mesocricetus; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000378:metabolism; D015689:Oncogene Protein p21(ras) / Q000378:metabolism; D015513:Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009857:Oncogenes; D017354:Point Mutation; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011519:Proto-Oncogenes; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D020663:ras Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors