Tumor Suppressor Candidate 3 (TUSC3)

TUSC3 is a candidate tumor suppressor gene. It is located within a homozygously deleted region of a metastatic prostate cancer. The gene is expressed in most nonlymphoid human tissues including prostate, lung, liver, and colon. Expression was also detected in many epithelial tumor cell lines. Two transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been identified for this gene.

The predicted 347-amino acid protein shares 43% identity with an anonymous C. elegans gene and 20% identity with the yeast OST3 gene. The protein is predicted to have 4 transmembrane domains and was expressed as a 1.5-kb mRNA in most nonlymphoid cells and tissues examined, including prostate, lung, liver, and colon.