Neuralized Like Protein (NEURL)

The Drosophila 'neuralized' (neu) gene belongs to a group of genes involved in the determination of cell fate in the neurogenic region of the embryo. Mutations in neu, or in any of the other neurogenic genes, cause hyperplasia of primitive neural tissue. The predicted 557-amino acid protein, which they called NEU, is 30% and 32% identical to Drosophila and C. elegans neu, respectively. All 3 proteins contain 2 repeat units designated NHRs (neuralized homology repeats) and a RING finger domain near the C terminus.

Northern blot and RT-PCR analyses revealed that the 4.2-kb NEU mRNA is expressed in normal brain. However, NEU mRNA levels were very low in malignant astrocytoma tissues and in the majority of glioma cell lines examined.