Zhang Jingyu, Wang Xia, Li Meixiang, Han Jin, Chen Bing, Wang Bin, Dai Jianwu
Laboratory of Molecular and Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
FEBS J. 2006 Apr;273(8):1723-30. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-4658.2006.05186.x.
Nanog is a transcription factor that plays key roles in the self-renewal and maintenance of pluripotency in human embryonic stem (ES) cells. Among Nanog's 11 pseudogenes, NANOGP8 theoretically could be a retrogene, but was considered unlikely as it has not been identified in any expressed sequence tags (ESTs). In this study, we found that NANOGP8 was expressed in several cancer cell lines and in all cancer tissues tested. The complete coding sequence was cloned and the sequence is highly homologous to that of Nanog. We were also able to detect its protein expression using anti-Nanog antibody in recombinant Escherichia coli and some cancer cell lines tested. In addition, expression of NANOGP8 in NIH3T3 cells can promote cell proliferation. The expression of NANOGP8 in cancer cell lines and cancer tissues suggests that NANOGP8 may play important roles in tumorigenesis. This work not only has potential significance in stem cell and cancer research, but it also raises the possibility that some of the human pseudogenes may have regulatory functions.
Nanog是一种转录因子，在人类胚胎干细胞（ES细胞）的自我更新和多能性维持中发挥关键作用。在Nanog的11个假基因中，NANOGP8理论上可能是一个反转录基因，但由于在任何表达序列标签（EST）中均未被鉴定出来，因此被认为不太可能。在本研究中，我们发现NANOGP8在几种癌细胞系以及所有测试的癌组织中均有表达。完整的编码序列被克隆出来，其序列与Nanog的序列高度同源。我们还能够在重组大肠杆菌和一些测试的癌细胞系中使用抗Nanog抗体检测到其蛋白表达。此外，NANOGP8在NIH3T3细胞中的表达能够促进细胞增殖。NANOGP8在癌细胞系和癌组织中的表达表明，NANOGP8可能在肿瘤发生中发挥重要作用。这项工作不仅在干细胞和癌症研究中具有潜在意义，还提出了一些人类假基因可能具有调控功能的可能性。
