HGNC Approved Gene Symbol: PDCD7
Cytogenetic location: 15q22.31 Genomic coordinates (GRCh38) : 15:65,117,379-65,133,808 (from NCBI)
Park et al. (1999) cloned mouse Pdcd7, which they designated Es18. The deduced 483-amino acid protein contains a proline-rich N terminus, followed by acidic regions with high contents of glutamic acid. The C-terminal half of Pdcd7 has several alpha-helix regions, evenly spaced leucines and hydrophobic amino acids, and an LxxLL transcriptional coactivator signature motif. Northern blot analysis detected expression primarily in testis, lymph node, and thymus. Park et al. (1999) also cloned a partial human sequence from a thymus cDNA library that encodes the C-terminal 246 amino acids of the protein. Human and mouse PDCD7 share 95% homology in the overlapping region.
Park et al. (1999) found that mouse Pdcd7 was selectively regulated during apoptosis of T-cell thymoma cells. Expression increased when apoptosis was induced by dexamethasone or staurosporine, a broad protein kinase inhibitor, but not when apoptosis was induced with specific inhibitors of protein kinase C (see 176960), protein kinase A (see 176911), phorbol esters, or calcium mobilization. Park et al. (1999) noted that ceramide is produced during staurosporine- and dexamethasone-induced apoptosis, and they found that ceramide alone induced Pdcd7 expression. They hypothesized that expression of Pdcd7 in apoptotic mouse T cells may be linked to ceramide-mediated signaling.
The International Radiation Hybrid Mapping Consortium mapped the PDCD7 gene to chromosome 15 (SGC30454).
Park, E. J., Kim, J. H., Seong, R. H., Kim, C. G., Park, S. D., Hong, S. H. Characterization of a novel mouse cDNA, ES18, involved in apoptotic cell death of T-cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 27: 1524-1530, 1999. [PubMed: 10037816] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/27.6.1524]