Down Regulated In Metastasis (DRIM)

UTP20 is a component of the U3 small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) (SNORD3A) protein complex (U3 snoRNP) and is involved in 18S rRNA processing.The deduced 2,785-amino acid protein contains several HEAT repeats of about 40 amino acids each throughout its sequence. Northern blot analysis detected strong expression of a 10-kb transcript in heart, skeletal muscle, pancreas, testis, and ovary. Expression was moderate in placenta, spleen, thymus, prostate, small intestine, appendix, and fetal liver, and very low in brain, colon, bone marrow, and normal mammary gland. No expression was detected in lung, liver, kidney, and peripheral blood leucocytes. UTP20 was also expressed in several divergent human tumor cell lines.