Zinc Finger, MYND-Type Containing Protein 10 (ZMYND10)

The deduced 440-amino acid conserved soluble cytoplasmic protein is 89% identical to the mouse protein and is somewhat homologous to the MTG/ETO family of transcription factors. It contains a zinc knuckle motif. Northern blot analysis revealed expression of a 2.0-kb transcript limited to lung, with trace expression in kidney, liver, placenta, and brain; a shorter isoform was found to be expressed in testis. BLU was expressed in few lung cancer cell lines. Mutations were found in approximately 5% of cell lines tested, but none of the genes identified in the search had a high frequency of mutations.Methylation of the BLU promoter region correlated with the downregulation of BLU transcript expression in tumor cell lines. Expression was recovered in tumor cell lines treated with 5-aza 2-deoxycytidine.