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Small G proteins are expressed ubiquitously in lymphoid cells and do not correspond to Bcl-2

Abstract

THE bcl-2 gene is consistently associated with t(14; 18) chromosomal translocations1–6 observed in a large fraction of human B-cell lymphomas7–8. The t(14; 18) translocation results in deregulated expression of the bcl-2 gene5 and synthesis of inappropriately high levels of the Bcl-2 protein9,10. Gene transfer studies suggest a role for Bcl-2 in cell survival11,12, growth enhancement13,14 and oncogenic transformation11,15. To test the suggestion that GTP-binding by Bcl-2 may mediate its biological effects16 we characterized the GTP-binding proteins in lymphoid cells expressing Bcl-2. Expression of several small GTP-binding proteins was found to be ubiquitous and did not vary with levels of Bcl-2. By using immunological, electrophoretic and cell-fractionation techniques, we separated Bcl-2 from G proteins of small relative molecular mass (Mr) and showed that it is incapable of binding GTP. Our results show that small Mr G proteins are widely expressed in lymphoid cells and that Bcl-2 is not a novel member of this GTP-binding protein family.

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Monica, K., Chen-Levy, Z. & Cleary, M. Small G proteins are expressed ubiquitously in lymphoid cells and do not correspond to Bcl-2. Nature 346, 189–191 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/346189a0

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