Sigje, a member of the small inducible gene family that includes platelet factor 4 and melanoma growth stimulatory activity, is on mouse chromosome 11.

Stiles and coworkers originally identified a gene they termed JE that is transcriptionally activated in mouse fibroblasts early after treatment with platelet derived growth factor or serum. This gene, now named Sigje, can encode a 148-amino acid secreted, basic polypeptide that belongs to the small inducible gene (SIG) family whose members include, for example, platelet factor 4, melanoma growth stimulatory activity (Mgsa), and interferon inducible protein 10. SIG family members share a conserved array of cysteine and proline residues and a similar predicted secondary structure, and may have evolved from a common ancestral gene. Several members of the SIG family have been assigned to the proximal long arm of human chromosome 4, to a region that has genetic homoeology with a portion of mouse Chromosome 5. We report here that mouse Sigje, in contrast to Mgsa, is on Chromosome 11. Sigje restriction fragment length polymorphisms in Mus spretus DNA were identified with the enzymes TaqI, MspI, BclI, and XbaI, and will be useful in mapping by meiotic recombination.