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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1986 Jul;83(14):5214–5218. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.14.5214

Analysis of the structure, transcripts, and protein products of bcl-2, the gene involved in human follicular lymphoma.

Y Tsujimoto, C M Croce
PMCID: PMC323921  PMID: 3523487

Abstract

We have determined that the bcl-2 (B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2) gene is transcribed into three overlapping mRNAs, and we have cloned bcl-2 cDNA sequences. Sequence analysis of the bcl-2 cDNA clones and comparison of their sequences to their genomic counterparts indicate that the bcl-2 gene contains at least two exons. The three bcl-2 transcripts, which are 8.5, 5.5, and 3.5 kilobases (kb) long, overlap within the first exon, but only the 8.5-kb and 5.5-kb transcripts contain sequences of the second exon. The 8.5-kb and 5.5-kb transcripts seem to use different polyadenylylation sites. Sequence analysis of the cDNA clones corresponding to the 5.5-kb and 3.5-kb mRNAs indicates that the two bcl-2 transcripts carry two overlapping open reading frames, one of which is 717 nucleotides long and codes for a protein (bcl-2 alpha) of 239 amino acids and a molecular mass of 26 kDa, while the other codes for a protein of 205 amino acids (bcl-2 beta, molecular mass 22 kDa) that is identical to bcl-2 alpha except at the carboxyl terminus. The bcl-2 protein products in follicular lymphomas with or without bcl-2 rearrangements are identical to the normal bcl-2 products.

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Selected References

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