Kinesin Family, Member 2A (KIF2A)

Kinesins, such as KIF2, are microtubule-associated motor proteins. For background information on kinesins.By using cDNA differential display, Debernardi et al. (1997) isolated a kinesin heavy chain gene (KIF2) as one regulated by the synthetic retinoid HPR, a cancer chemopreventive agent and inducer of apoptotic cell death. The KIF2 gene, which they called HK2 for 'human kinesin-2,' was cloned from follicular B-cell lymphoma cells treated with HPR. Human KIF2 is a predicted 679-amino acid protein that is 97% identical to mouse KIF2 protein. On Northern blots, KIF2 was expressed as a 3.5-kb mRNA in several tissues. Debernardi et al. (1997) mapped the KIF2 gene to chromosome 5q12-q13 by PCR of a panel of radiation hybrid clones.