Summary
The nuclear protein prothymosin α is thought to play a critical role in cellular proliferation. Transcription of the gene encoding prothymosin α has been shown to be activated by the proto-oncogene c-myc. Also, prothymosin α mRNA expression correlates with that of c-myc in human colon cancer. We compared the previously reported embryonic expression pattern of the proto-oncogene c-myc and the pattern of the prothymosin α gene byin situ hybridization. Prothymosin α is transcribed in all tissues expressing c-myc, including brown adipose tissue, salivary gland, thymus and liver. In addition, we show that the prothymosin α gene is active in tissues expressing specifically N-myc such as the neuronal anlage and hair follicles in skin. Therefore, during mouse foetal development the temporal, spatial and tissue-specific expression patterns of bothmyc protooncogenes coincide with the pattern of prothymosin α.
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Moll, J., Schmid, P., Sansig, G. et al. The pattern of prothymosinα gene expression coincides with that ofmyc proto-oncogenes during mouse embryogenesis. Histochem J 28, 45–52 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02331426
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02331426