Periodic Tryptophan Protein 2 (PWP2)

An exon was isolated that encoded a predicted protein which was similar to the yeast PWP2 gene, a member of the tryptophan-aspartate (WD) repeat-containing superfamily. PWP2 is essential for viability and may play a role in the early G1 phase of the cell cycle. The complete coding region of human PWP2, obtained from fetal brain and fetal kidney cDNA libraries, encodes a 919-amino acid predicted protein with over 40% identity to the yeast protein. It also shares similarity to the beta subunits of the trimeric G-protein family. The protein contains 5 complete WD repeats and an acidic domain between the second and third WD motifs. Northern blots showed a 3.4-kb PWP2 mRNA in all fetal and adult tissues examined. Based on cosmid contig analysis, the gene was mapped approximately 200 kb proximal to PFKL.