[Identification of digital differential expression patterns of a novel human gene (UBAP1) by an expressed sequence tag strategy].
OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to identify differential expression patterns in tumor and normal tissues of the human novel gene, UBAP1, a putative nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) relate gene, which is located at human chromosome 9p21-22 where loss of heterozygosity frequently occurs in NPC.


METHODS
Based on the generation of expressed sequence tags (ESTs), in the authors' electronic Northern blot, complete cDNA of ubap1 gene was taken as a "probe" sequence, and human EST Database search of GenBank was carried out using BLASTn programs. A report generated in a BLAST search of ubap1 gene sequence against an EST database consisting of such 'pedigree' ESTs allows the inference of the gene's tissue distribution. Furthermore, differential RT-PCR was used to describe the expression patterns of ubap1 in partial tumor tissues.


RESULTS
Database surveys indicated ubap1 gene was not only ubiquitously expressed in many normal tissues with various levels but also differentially expressed in different tumor tissues, especially down-regulated in multiple neoplastic tissues such as brain, breast, skin, colon, testis, and uterus tumor tissues. Furthermore, differential RT-PCR analysis demonstrated expression of ubap1 was down-regulated or absent in 7 of 11(64%) meningioma samples and 13 of 18 (72%) colorectal tumor tissues respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The authors present an EST approach that proved to be useful for the identification of differential expression patterns of ubap1 in different tumors. These findings could be valuable for the investigation of the mechanism of UBAP1 gene exhibiting differential expression, potentially involved in the progression of multiple cancers.
Qian
Jun
J
Cancer Research Institute, Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha 410078, P. R. China.
Zhang
Xiao-mei
XM
Li
Xiao-ling
XL
Wang
Jie-ru
JR
Li
Wei-fang
WF
Wang
Rong
R
Li
Gui-yuan
GY
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002899:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D014018:Tissue Distribution
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; C469867:UBAP1 protein, human