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RT-PCR analysis of p73 splice variants, ease or tease?

Leukemia volume 19, pages 1685–1686 (2005)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

The gene TP73 has been identified as a homologue of tumour suppressor TP53 and is expressed from 1p36, a region frequently deleted in human cancers.1 TP73 is expressed from two distinct promoters, which results in TAp73 and ΔNp73 isoforms. TAp73 isoforms contain a transactivation domain and are able to act as transcription factors and transactivate p53 target genes like p21WAF1/Cip1 and 14-3-3σ. ΔNp73 isoforms lack the transactivation domain and can inhibit the function of TAp73 isoforms and p53. TP73 also presents a wide array of C-terminal splice variants called α, β, γ, δ, ɛ, η and ζ. The resulting p73 proteins have different biological functions and are involved in development, apoptosis, cell-cycle arrest and oncogenesis. Several types of leukemia and solid tumours express much higher levels and alternative combinations of p73 splice variants compared to the tissue from which they originated.1, 2 Hence, the identification of all possible splice variants is essential to fully understand the involvement of TP73 in carcinogenic transformation. However, contrasting results regarding p73 mRNA expression in haematopoietic malignancies obtained by different investigators have been noted.2

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Gerry Melino (Rome) for pcDNA3 plasmids containing p73 splice variants, Dr Jim Rheinwald (Cambridge) for SCC15 cells, Dr AG Jochemsen (Leiden) for HCT116 cells and Dr N Fusenig (Heidelberg) for HaCaT cells. Ethan den Boer and Kristiaan Lenos are acknowledged for technical assistance. We apologize to all researchers whose relevant work could not be cited due to space limitations.

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  1. Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    M Niemantsverdriet, W P Vermeij & C Backendorf

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  1. M Niemantsverdriet
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  2. W P Vermeij
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Correspondence to C Backendorf.

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Niemantsverdriet, M., Vermeij, W. & Backendorf, C. RT-PCR analysis of p73 splice variants, ease or tease?. Leukemia 19, 1685–1686 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403880

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