A novel post-transcriptional splicing form of the acute T cell leukemia proto-oncogene Lmo2

Lmo2 is a T cell leukemia-related proto-oncogene, which belongs to the LIM protein family. Previous work has established its key role in yolk sac erythropoiesis and adult hematopoiesis, and it is also necessary for regulating angiogenesis. It has been demonstrated that this gene encodes a protein of 158 amino acids, consisting of two tandem cysteine-rich LIM domains, but the detailed mechanism of its transcriptional regulation remains to be elucidated. To further investigate the mechanism of transcriptional regulation of Lmo2, we combined SMART PCR technology with 5'RACE and found a novel post-transcriptional splicing form of Lmo2 in adult human kidney. This alternative transcript contains only two exons, encoding a smaller protein of 151 amino acids. Interestingly, it shares the same reading frame as the original Lmo2, but differs in 7 amino acids at the N-terminus. A genomic DNA fragment (from -294 nts to +180 nts) containing the putative promoter region has been inserted into the luciferase reporter gene vector pGL3-basic and showed stable promoter activity when transfected into COS7. RT-PCR analysis revealed that this variant transcript was expressed widely in human tissues and cell lines, suggesting its potential basic functional importance.