Proline Rich Acidic Protein 1 (PRAP1)

Using a differential hybridization screen to identify genes expressed in late pregnancy mouse uterus, Kasik and Rice (1997) identified a novel cDNA encoding a 154-amino acid protein, which they called pregnancy-specific uterine protein. Zhang et al. (2000) cloned the rat homolog. By EST database searching, Zhang et al. (2003) identified the human homolog, PRAP1, and cloned it from human normal colon mucosa cDNA. Human PRAP1 encodes a deduced 151-amino acid protein that is approximately 50% homologous to the rat and mouse proteins. It has a 20-amino acid signal peptide that is more than 70% conserved between human and rodent, and it contains 2 putative casein kinase II phosphorylation sites. Zhang et al. (2003) identified 3 PRAP1 isoforms that result from differential splicing.