The Mouse Neuronal Protein 15.6 Gene Family
- Yuko Watanabe1,2,
- Seiji Nishiguchi1,
- Makoto Watanabe1,
- Kazunori Shimada1,2,
- RIKEN GER Group3,
- GSL Members4,5,
- Koji Koyama2, and
- Hiromichi Yamanishi1,6
- 1Hirakata Ryoikuen, Tsudahigashi, Hirakata, Osaka 573-0122, Japan
- 2Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Reproduction, Institute for Advanced Medical Sciences, Hyogo College of Medicine, Mukogawa, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 663-8501, Japan
- 3Laboratory for Genome Exploration Research Group, RIKEN, Genomic Sciences Center (GSC), RIKEN Yokohama Institute, Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 230-0045, Japan
- 4Genome Science Laboratory, RIKEN, Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
During the course of reviewing the results of automatic annotation of 1989 clusters derived from 16,078 sequences of an adult mouse testis cDNA library, we found a cluster of 24 cDNA clones showing similarity to the mouse neuronal protein 15.6 (NP15.6) gene andnamedit the NP15.6-like gene. This NP15.6-like gene correspondedto an intronless gene, mappedto chromosome 15, andwas expressedpredominantly in the testes. Interestingly, the mouse NP15.6 gene itself is a split gene consisting of three exons, mappedto chromosome X, andwas expressedat high levels in various tissues andorgans. We foundtwo more intronless NP15.6-like genes; one was mappedto chromosome 5, andthe other to chromosome X. These two intronless genes were probably processed-type pseudogenes. Our present observations support the idea that NP15.6 family proteins have a shorter half-life andspan a membrane.
