Peter Pan Homolog (PPAN)

Exposure of HF cells to a PPAN-specific ribozyme decreased PPAN expression and promoted growth in soft agar. The authors confirmed their results using ribozymes directed against other sites in the PPAN message. All ribozymes reduced the level of PPAN mRNA in cells and promoted anchorage-independent growth. Exogenous expression of PPAN in HeLa and lung tumor cells reduced their ability to grow in soft agar.The fusion is produced by transgenic splicing that removes the genomic sequence between part of the last exon of the SSF1 gene and exon 2 of the P2Y11 gene. Splicing occurs in the absence of a consensus splicing donor site. Northern blot analysis with probes specific for SSF1 and P2Y11 detected a common 5.6-kb transcript representing the SSF1-P2Y11 chimeric message in all 12 tissues examined.