title: Identification of a novel group of evolutionarily conserved members within the rapidly diverging murine Cea family.
abstract: The carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) family comprises a still actively evolving populous group of proteins that are involved in controlling tissue homeostasis, immune responses, and host/pathogen interactions. The genes identified to date in rodents and primates exhibit low sequence similarity and an extremely variable domain composition. Among the 22 murine Cea-related genes, only for Ceacam1 has an ortholog been assigned. To identify all CEA-related genes in mouse, rat, and human we undertook genome-wide analyses. Eight of 9 new expressible genes (Ceacam12-Ceacam20) could be located within the approximately 6.5-Mb murine Cea locus. Five of the genes were rodent-specific (Ceacam12-Ceacam15 and Ceacam17). Surprisingly, for the remaining 4 (Ceacam16 and Ceacam18-Ceacam20) orthologs could be detected in all three genomes at syntenic locations. Gene-specific reverse transcription/PCR analyses of total RNA from 31 murine adult, placental, and embryonic tissues as well as tumors revealed very distinct expression patterns, suggesting diversified functions within the CEA family.
authors.affiliation: Tumor Immunology Laboratory, Department of Urology, University Clinic Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians-University München, Marchioninistrasse 23, D-81377 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zebhauser
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kammerer
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eisenried
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McLellan
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D016678:Genome; D023281:Genomics; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012313:RNA / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D012313:RNA