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Truncated Forms Of The Dual Function Human Asct2 Neutral Amino Acid Transporter/Retroviral Receptor Are Translationally Initiated At Multiple Alternative Cug And Gug Codons, Chetankumar S. Tailor, Mariana Marin, Ali Nouri, Michael Kavanaugh, David Kabat

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

The sodium-dependent neutral amino acid transporter type 2 (ASCT2) was recently identified as a cell surface receptor for endogenously inherited retroviruses of cats, baboons, and humans as well as for horizontally transmitted type-D simian retroviruses. By functional cloning, we obtained 10 full-length 2.9-kilobase pair (kbp) cDNAs and two smaller identical 2.1-kbp cDNAs that conferred susceptibility to these viruses. Compared with the 2.9-kbp cDNA, the 2.1-kbp cDNA contains exonic deletions in its 3′ noncoding region and a 627-bp 5′ truncation that eliminates sequences encoding the amino-terminal portion of the full-length ASCT2 protein. Although expression of the truncated mRNA caused enhanced amino …