A concern regarding the current confusion with the human homolog of mouse Np95, ICBP90/UHRF1.

ICBP90/UHRF1, which is overexpressed in cancer cells and is down-regulated by p53, possesses a methylated CpG binding affinity and binds to the methylated promoters of tumor suppressor genes in cancer cells with HDAC1 and DNMT1, suggesting suppression of these genes and maintenance of methylation status which leads to carcinogenesis. Recently, it was reported that the human homolog of Np95 is different from ICBP90 but not from UHRF1. Because UHRF1 is the gene symbol of ICBP90, the claim is a little confusing; that is, UHRF1 and ICBP90 are identical. Because the previously published genomic structure of the ICBP90 gene needed to be revised and the registered ICBP90 sequence (AF129507) contains two rare polymorphisms or sequence errors, we think that confusion could occur. Here we show the revised ICBP90 gene structure and 366 polymorphisms in this gene. Our conclusion is that the human homolog of Np95 is ICBP90, whose gene symbol is UHRF1.