Gene: maps to 17q12-q21 (Tomasetto C. et al., 1995). This region exhibits various sites of DNA mutation, deletion or amplification in primary breast carcinomas. This region includes the tumor-suppressor gene
BRCA1 and the
c-erbB-2 oncogene.
mRNA: size: 2.1 kb.
Protein: MLN64 cDNA encodes a putative protein of 445 residues containing a potential helical transmembrane (TM) region at its N-terminal part. This TM region is responsible for the subcellular localization of MLN64. A high protein sequence homology with the StAR protein of various species was reported. StAR is involved in the regulation of cholesterol availability in the mitochondria of steroidogenic cells (Stocco D.M. and Clark B.J., 1996). MLN64 is, however, not associated with mitochondria (Moog-Lutz C. et al., 1997).
Cell lines:
- SK-BR-3 and BT-474 breast cancer cells (BCC) exhibit MLN64 overexpression. MCF-7 BCC do not express MLN64 mRNA (Tomasetto C. et al., 1995).
Tumors:
- 14 of 93 primary invasive breast carcinomas examined were found to over-express MLN64. These 14 tumors also expressed high
c-erbB-2 transcript levels, which were not detected in the MLN64-negative tumors. MLN64 mRNA and protein were specifically detected in malignant cells of breast carcinomas. MLN64 protein was localized within bundle-like structures distributed throughout the cell cytoplasm and condensed in a perinulear patch, suggesting an association with a specific cell compartment (Moog-Lutz C. et al., 1997).
