Tubby Like Protein 2 (TULP2)

Mice homozygous for a splicing defect in the C terminus of the 'tubby' gene (tub) show progressive retinal and cochlear degeneration, maturation-onset diabetes with insulin resistance, and impaired glucose tolerance. Database searches revealed that sequences corresponding to the C terminus of the tub protein are highly conserved across a number of species, including humans, mice, C. elegans, Arabidopsis, rice, and maize, and that tub is a member of a gene family. North et al. (1997) described TUB, the human homolog of mouse tub, and 2 new family members, TULP1 and TULP2. These 3 genes, which differ in the N-terminal half of the protein, share 60 to 90% amino acid identity across their conserved C-terminal region and have distinct tissue expression patterns. TULP2 maps to 19q13.1 by radiation hybrid mapping.