0000000000217166
AUTHOR
Norma J. Nowak
Anaplastic Wilms' tumour, a subtype displaying poor prognosis, harbours p53 gene mutations
The genetics of Wilms' tumour (WT), a paediatric malignancy of the kidney, is complex. Inactivation of the tumour suppressor gene, WT1, is associated with tumour aetiology in approximately 10-15% of WTs. Chromosome 17p changes have been noted in cytogenetic studies of WTs, prompting us to screen 140 WTs for p53 mutations. When histopathology reports were available, p53 mutations were present in eight of eleven anaplastic WTs, a tumour subtype associated with poor prognosis. Amplification of MDM2, a gene whose product binds and sequesters p53, was excluded. Our results indicate that p53 alterations provide a molecular marker for anaplastic WTs.
Functional characterization of human nucleosome assembly protein-2 (NAP1L4) suggests a role as a histone chaperone.
Abstract Histones are thought to play a key role in regulating gene expression at the level of DNA packaging. Recent evidence suggests that transcriptional activation requires competition of transcription factors with histones for binding to regulatory regions and that there may be several mechanisms by which this is achieved. We have characterized a human nucleosome assembly protein, NAP-2, previously identified by positional cloning at 11p15.5, a region implicated in several disease processes including Wilms tumor (WT) etiology. The deduced amino acid sequence of NAP-2 indicates that it encodes a protein with a potential nuclear localization motif and two clusters of highly acidic residue…
Divergently Transcribed Overlapping Genes Expressed in Liver and Kidney and Located in the 11p15.5 Imprinted Domain
Human chromosomal band 11p15.5 has been shown to contain genes involved in the development of several pediatric and adult tumors and in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS). Overlapping P1 artificial chromosome clones from this region have been used as templates for genomic sequencing in an effort to identify candidate genes for these disorders. PowerBLAST identified several matches with expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from fetal brain and liver cDNA libraries. Northern blot analysis indicated that two of the genes identified by these ESTs encode transcripts of 1-1.5 kb with predominant expression in fetal and adult liver and kidney. With RT-PCR and RACE, full-length transcripts were isolated f…