Dopey Family, Member 2 (DOPEY2)

By screening human brain cDNAs for the potential to encode proteins larger than 50 kD, Nagase et al. (1999) isolated a C21ORF5 cDNA lacking 5-prime coding sequence. The partial C21ORF5 cDNA, which they called KIAA0933, encodes a deduced 1,622-amino acid C21ORF5 polypeptide that did not show sequence similarity to known proteins. RT-PCR followed by ELISA detected DOPEY2 expression in all human tissues examined, namely brain, spinal cord, liver, pancreas, kidney, spleen, heart, lung, skeletal muscle, testis, ovary, fetal brain, and fetal liver. Within the brain, C21ORF5 expression was found in all regions tested, namely amygdala, corpus callosum, cerebellum, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, substantia nigra, subthalamic nucleus, and thalamus.