Bera Tapan K, Saint Fleur Ashley, Ha Duc, Yamada Masanori, Lee Yoomi, Lee Byungkook, Hahn Yoonsoo, Kaufman Dan S, Pera Martin, Pastan Ira
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Stem Cells Dev. 2008 Apr;17(2):325-32. doi: 10.1089/scd.2007.0079.
POTE is a primate-specific gene family that encodes cancer testis antigens that contain three domains, although the proteins vary greatly in size. The amino-terminal domain is novel and has three cysteine-rich domains of 37 amino acids. The second and third domains are rich in ankyrin repeats and spectrin-like helices respectively. In humans, 13 highly homologous paralogs are dispersed among eight chromosomes. Some members of the POTE gene family have an actin insertion at the carboxyl end of the protein. The expression of the POTE gene in normal adult tissues is restricted, but several POTE paralogs are frequently expressed in many cancers including breast, prostate, and lung cancers. We show here that POTE is expressed in several human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines. We found that UC06, WA01 and ES03 cell lines express mainly a POTE-2gamma transcript but ES02 and ES04 cell lines predominantly express POTE-2alpha. The WA09 cell line expressed both POTE-2gamma and POTE-2alpha. There is no detectable POTE gene expression in fetal tissues (ages 16-36 weeks). The POTE paralogs that are expressed in ES cells may have a specific function during lineage-specific differentiation of ES cells.
POTE是一个灵长类动物特有的基因家族，它编码含有三个结构域的癌胚抗原，尽管这些蛋白质的大小差异很大。氨基末端结构域是新的，有三个富含37个氨基酸的半胱氨酸结构域。第二个和第三个结构域分别富含锚蛋白重复序列和血影蛋白样螺旋结构。在人类中，13个高度同源的旁系同源基因分散在8条染色体上。POTE基因家族的一些成员在蛋白质的羧基末端有一个肌动蛋白插入序列。POTE基因在正常成人组织中的表达受到限制，但几个POTE旁系同源基因在包括乳腺癌、前列腺癌和肺癌在内的许多癌症中经常表达。我们在此表明，POTE在几种人类胚胎干细胞（ES）系中表达。我们发现，UC06、WA01和ES03细胞系主要表达POTE-2γ转录本，但ES02和ES04细胞系主要表达POTE-2α。WA09细胞系同时表达POTE-2γ和POTE-2α。在胎儿组织（16-36周龄）中未检测到POTE基因表达。在ES细胞中表达的POTE旁系同源基因可能在ES细胞的谱系特异性分化过程中具有特定功能。
