Necdin (NDN)

Necdin is located in the Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) deletion region. It is an imprinted gene and is expressed exclusively from the paternal allele. Studies in mouse suggest that the protein encoded by this gene may suppress growth in postmitotic neurons. An EST showed 99% sequence identity to the 3-prime end of a GenBank sequence, defined as 'a human necdin-related protein mRNA.' Mouse necdin (Ndn) was originally identified as a protein encoded by a neural differentiation-specific mRNA, derived from embryonal carcinoma cells.

The necdin protein was localized to the nuclei of postmitotic neurons and was expressed in almost all postmitotic neurons in the CNS from the beginning of neural differentiation and into adult life.