Characterization of FMN2 gene at human chromosome 1q43

Mouse Formin (Fmn1) is an actin regulator interacting with Profilin, SRC, EMS1, FNBP1, FNBP2, FNBP3, FNBP4, WBP4 and α-catenin. FMN1, FHOD1, FHOD3, GRID2IP and FHDC1 are non-FDD-type Formin homology proteins, while FMNL1, FMNL2, FMNL3, DIAPH1, DIAPH2, DIAPH3, DAAM1 and DAAM2 are FDD-type Formin homology proteins. Here, we characterized human FMN2 gene by using bioinformatics. Complete coding sequence of human FMN2 cDNA was determined by assembling AL359918, AL513342, AL590490, AL646016 genome sequences, AF218941 partial cDNA, and AF218942 partial cDNA. FMN2 mRNA was expressed in fetal brain, adult whole brain, hypothalamus, retina, pancreatic islet and germinal-center B cells. Among various human tumors, FMN2 mRNA was expressed in parathyloid tumor, glioblastoma, retinoblastoma and chondrosarcoma. Human FMN2 (1722 aa) showed 74.7% total-amino-acid identity with mouse Fmn2, and 31.9% total-amino-acid identity with human FMN1. Although N-terminal half was divergent between FMN2 orthologs and FMN1 orthologs, FH1 and FH2 domains were conserved among FMN2 and FMN1 orthologs. Exon-intron structure was conserved between FMN2 and FMN1 genes. RYR2-FMN2-CKTSF1B2 (PRDC) locus at human chromosome 1q43 and RYR3-FMN1-CKTSF1B1 (Gremlin) locus at human chromosome 15q13-q14 were paralogous regions (paralogons) within the human genome. This is the first report on comprehensive characterization of the human FMN2 gene.