Abstract
LITTLE is known about the biochemical or functional nature of the proteins encoded by the bcl-2 gene, which undergoes chromosomal translocation in approximately 85% of follicular lymphoma, 20% of diffuse large cell lymphoma and 10% of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia of B cells1–5. Translocation of bcl-2 sequences5 from chromosome 18 to the JH segment of the immunoglobulin gene at chromosome band 14q32 in B cells results in deregulated expression of this gene, causing high steady state levels of bcl-2 messenger RNA2. DNA sequence data indicate that bcl-2 encodes two proteins by virtue of alternative splicing, designated as Bcl-2α and Bcl-2β, with relative molecular masses of 26,000 and 22,000 respectively1. Cell fractionation experiments indicate that the bcl-2α gene product is located at the inner surface of the cell membrane, suggesting a possible role in mitogenic signal transduction6. We report here that Bcl-2α has GTP-binding activity and a protein sequence that suggests it belongs to the small molecular weight GTP-binding protein (G protein) family7–16.
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Haldar, S., Beatty, C., Tsujimoto, Y. et al. The bcl-2 gene encodes a novel G protein. Nature 342, 195–198 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/342195a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/342195a0
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