ERGL, a novel gene related to ERGIC-53 that is highly expressed in normal and neoplastic prostate and several other tissues.

We have identified a new gene, that is highly expressed in normal and neoplastic prostate, and is also expressed in cardiac atrium, salivary gland, spleen and selective cells in the CNS. Database analyses of ESTs indicated prostate specificity but experimental results showed the expression in other tissues. The full length transcript is 1800 bp with an open reading frame of 526 aa. The amino-terminal 230 residues of the expressed protein has high homology to a family of lectins, especially to the sugar binding domain of ERGIC-53. We therefore designate the new gene ERGL (ERGIC-53-like). There is a transmembrane domain at amino acid positions 468-482 suggesting that the product of ERGL is a type-I membrane protein. In prostate there are two fully processed transcripts one of which is a splice variant with a deletion in the region of the transmembrane domain of the protein.