Molecular cloning of rHAUSP encoding a deubiquitinating enzyme in rat testis

The tumor suppressor protein p53 is stabilized by the herpes-virus-associated ubiquitin-specific protease (HAUSP), a deubiquitinating enzyme. We previously isolated and characterized a mouse orthologue of HAUSP, mHAUSP. In this study, we have identified a rat orthologue of HAUSP, rHAUSP, from the rat testis by RT-PCR using primers used for cloning mHAUSP. rHAUSP cDNA encodes 3,312 bp and 1,103 amino acids with a molecular weight of approximately 135 kDa containing highly conserved Cys, Asp (I), His, and Asn/Asp (II) domains characteristic of the ubiquitin-specific processing proteases. pI value of rHAUSP is 5.31. In vivo and in vitro deubiquitinating enzyme assays demonstrated that rHAUSP has deubiquitinating enzymatic activity. The over-expression of rHAUSP induced cell death of cervical adenocarcinoma cells.