Diphthamide Biosynthesis Protein 1 (DPH1)

Diphthamide biosynthesis protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the DPH1 gene. It encodes a protein that modifies histidine-699 on eukaryotic translation elongation factor 2 to diphthamide. This modification appears to be important in the translation (genetics) of Cyclin D in ovarian cells. OVCA1 is mutated in 90% of ovarian cancers end stage, usually by loss of heterozygosity.

The predicted 363-amino acid protein was designated DPH2L (DPH2-like) because it shares 20% amino acid identity with the S. cerevisiae Dph2 (diphthamide biosynthesis-2) gene. The authors noted that DPH2L is more closely related to Yik3, a predicted yeast protein of unknown function.