Isolation of expressed sequences that include a gene for familial breast cancer (BRCA2) and other novel transcripts from a five megabase region on chromosome 13q12.

A proportion of familial breast cancer has recently been shown by genetic linkage analysis to map to chromosome l3q12 (Wooster et al, 1994). This locus contains a tumor suppressor gene BRCA2, mutations in which lead to tumorigenesis. Genetic alterations at this locus have also been shown in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and in hepatocellular carcinoma. In an effort to isolate the BRCA2 gene, we have cloned 73 non overlapping cDNAs from a set of nine YACs spanning 6 cM interval on chromosome 13q12 by using a direct cDNA selection method. One of the selected cDNAs corresponds to a region of the 3' portion of BRCA2 mRNA, the sequence of which was published recently (Wooster et al, 1995). Northern analysis of BRCA2 transcripts from a variety of cell lines showed altered sizes of the mRNA in a breast cancer cell line (MCF7) and a prostate carcinoma cell line (DU145). Furthermore, BRCA2 transcript was present in cDNA libraries from total fetus as well as adult human tissues. Fifteen unique cDNA fragments encode genes/ESTs that are already known, of which only two have been mapped to this region. The other 12 cDNAs include genes for RPL6/mRNA for TAX REB 107, elongation factor-1 delta, 26S protease S4 regulatory subunit, small cytoplasmic 7SL RNA, a full length open reading frame (ORFU), brain thiol specific antioxidant protein, ribosomal protein, L35, and lipoxygenase activating protein. Six cDNAs represent human homologs of genes known in other species, namely, mouse HSPE71, Rat RhoGAP protein, S cerevisiae leucyl tRNA synthetase and S cerevisiae chromosome II ORF YBLO44W. The remaining 52 cDNAs showed either weak similarity or no similarity to sequences in the nucleotide data base and hence would represent novel genes. The plausible functions of some of these genes based on their sequence similarity to other known genes is discussed.