Molecular Cloning and Mapping of the Brain-Abundant B1γ Subunit of Protein Phosphatase 2A, PPP2R2C, to Human Chromosome 4p16 ☆

Abstract Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is one kind of serine/threonine protein phosphatase regulating mainly cell growth and division. It comprises three subunits, A, B, and C. The B-subunit is involved in enzyme activity and substrate specificity. The B-subunit family is of great diversity and is divided into three classes, the B1, B2, and B3 subfamilies. Until now, two members of the B1 subfamily, B1α and B1β, have been identified in human. In this report, the third member of the subfamily, B1γ, was identified, and its cDNA was isolated from a human brain cDNA library. This novel cDNA is 4120 bp in length and contains an open reading frame (nt 55–1398) encoding 447 amino acid residues. The putative protein shares 81 and 85% identity with B1α (PPP2R2A) and B1β (PPP2R2B), respectively, and was named PPP2R2C for its high level of homology to the other two isoforms. One remarkable characteristic of this novel gene is that it is highly expressed in brain with a 4.7-kb transcript while it is nearly undetectable in other tissues. In addition, the PPP2R2C gene was localized to human chromosome 4p16 between markers D4S2925 and D4S3007 with 5.45 cR (LOD > 14) and 2.63 cR (LOD > 15) RH distance, respectively, by radiation hybrid panel mapping.