Cloning and tissue distribution of the human B3GALT7 gene, a member of the beta1,3-Glycosyltransferase family.

We report here the cloning and tissue distribution of the human B3GALT7 gene, a member of the beta1,3-Glycosyltransferase family, structurally related to the beta1,3-Galactosyltransferase family and beta1,3- N -acetylglucosaminyltransferase family, isolated from a human lung cDNA library. B3GALT7 is mapped to chromosome 19q13.2 by browsing the UCSC genomic database. It contains an ORF with length of 1191bp, encoding a protein with a signal peptide sequence and galactosyl-T domain, and its molecular weight and isoelectric point is predicted to be 43.3 kDa and 8.67 respectively. The molecular weight of the protein when expressed in E. coli corresponded to that expected. Northern blotting showed that B3GALT7 was highly expressed in lung, throat and ileum, whereas the expression level was low in tongue, breast, uteri, testis. In addition, it was also demonstrated that B3GALT7 is differentially transcribed in human tumor cell lines.