Loss of calcyphosine gene expression in mouse and other rodents.

Calcyphosine-for calcium binding and regulated by cyclic AMP through phosphorylation protein-is a target of both the cyclic AMP and the Ca(+2)-phophatidylinositol cascades first isolated from dog thyroid, and then from rabbit and human brain. Although the exact function of this 24kD protein is unknown, calcyphosine could be implicated in the cross-signaling between these cascades to coordinate cellular proliferation and differentiation. Here, we report the sequence of a pseudogene which is the murine calcyphosine homologue, and demonstrate that it represents the unique sequence homologous to the dog calcyphosine gene in the murine genome. The lack of expression of this murine pseudogene in brain and thyroid-two major sites of dog calcyphosine expression-was extended to 5 other rodents, and suggest the existence of alternative pathway(s) to fill the function of calcyphosine in rodents.