Molecular cloning, genomic structure and interactions of the putative breast tumor suppressor TACC2

The human transforming acidic coiled-coil 2 (TACC2) gene has been suggested recently to be a putative breast tumor suppressor. Now we can report the cloning of full length TACC2 cDNAs corresponding to the major isoforms expressed during development. The TACC2 gene is encoded by 23 exons, and spans 255 kb of chromosome 10q26. In breast cancer cell lines, TACC2 is expressed as a 120 kDa protein corresponding to the major transcript expressed in the mammary gland. Although only slight differences in the expression of TACC2 in normal versus breast tumors were observed, overexpression of TACC2 can alter the in vitro cellular dynamics of some breast cancer cell lines. Significantly, we demonstrate that TACC2 interacts with GAS41 and the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. This suggests that defects in TACC2 expression may affect gene regulation, thus contributing to the pathogenesis of some tumors.