Lung Adenoma Susceptibility Protein 2 (LAS2)

The deduced 533-amino acid human protein  shares 65% identity with the 526-amino acid mouse protein. Quantitative PCR of mouse tissues detected highest Las2 expression in lung.Germline nonsynonymous SNPs and insertions/deletion polymorphisms in the Las2 gene were associated with susceptibility to lung adenoma in mice. Loss of Las2 increased colony formation in the LM2 mouse lung adenocarcinoma cell line and increased the tumorigenicity of LM2 cells in nude mice. Examination of 384 human lung adenocarcinomas and matched normal DNA revealed frequent allelic imbalance associated with 2 microdeletions around the LAS2 region in lung tumors. Of 6 tumors showing this loss of heterozygosity, none had somatic mutations in LAS2 coding exons.