Roger L. Eddy

The hypothesis that red-green "color blindness" is caused by alterations in the genes encoding red and green visual pigments has been tested and shown to be correct. Genomic DNA's from 25 males with various red-green color vision deficiencies were analyzed by Southern blot hybridization with the cloned red and green pigment genes as probes. The observed genotypes appear to result from unequal recombination or gene conversion (or both). Together with chromosome mapping experiments, these data identify each of the cloned human visual pigment genes.

Complementary DNA clones encoding a glucose transporter-like protein have been isolated from a human fetal skeletal muscle cDNA library. The 496-amino acid fetal muscle glucose transporter-like protein has 64.4 and 51.6% identity with the previously described human erythrocyte/HepG2 and liver glucose transporter sequences, respectively. RNA blotting studies indicate that transcripts encoding this glucose transporter-like protein are present in most tissues, although their relative abundance varies. The gene encoding this protein has been localized to human chromosome 12p13.3. The identification and characterization of a third human glucose transporter-related protein suggests that there is a family of proteins having similar sequences and structures which are involved in nutrient transport by mammalian cells.

cDNA clones encoding a glucose transporter-like protein have been isolated from adult human liver and kidney cDNA libraries by cross-hybridization with the human HepG2/erythrocyte glucose transporter cDNA. Analysis of the sequence of this 524-amino acid glucose transporter-like protein indicates that it has 55.5% identity with the HepG2/erythrocyte glucose transporter as well as a similar structural organization. Studies of the tissue distribution of the mRNA coding for this glucose transporter-like protein in adult human tissues indicate that the highest amounts are present in liver with lower amounts in kidney and small intestine. The amounts of glucose transporter-like mRNA in other tissues, including colon, stomach, cerebrum, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue, were below the level of sensitivity of our assay. The single-copy gene encoding this glucose transporter-like protein has been localized to the q26.1----q26.3 region of chromosome 3.

Two novel facilitative glucose transporter-like cDNAs have been isolated from human small intestine and fetal skeletal muscle cDNA libraries by low stringency cross-hybridization with a fragment of the human erythrocyte/GLUT1 facilitative glucose transporter cDNA. One encodes a 501-amino acid facilitative glucose transporter, designated as the small intestine/GLUT5 isoform, having 41.7, 40.0, 38.7, and 41.6% identity with the previously described human erythrocyte/GLUT1, liver/GLUT2, brain/GLUT3, and muscle-fat/GLUT4 isoforms, respectively. GLUT5 mRNA is expressed at highest levels in small intestine and at much lower levels in kidney, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue. Expression of in vitro synthesized human GLUT5 mRNA in Xenopus laevis oocytes indicates that the GLUT5 protein is a cytochalasin B-sensitive glucose carrier. The gene encoding the GLUT5 protein is located on the short arm of human chromosome 1. The second facilitative transporter-like cDNA sequence, designated GLUT6, is part of an 11-kilobase transcript that is expressed in all tissues examined. The sequence of a partial-length GLUT6 cDNA having an insert of 3.4 kilobase pairs revealed a region of 1.5 kilobase pairs that has 79.6% identity with the human brain/GLUT3 facilitative glucose transporter cDNA. However, because of the presence of multiple stop codons and frame shifts, this sequence cannot encode a functional glucose transporter protein. The region of facilitative glucose transporter nucleotide sequence homology in the GLUT6 transcript may have arisen by insertion of a reverse-transcribed GLUT3 transcript into the untranslated region of another gene. The GLUT6 gene is located on the long arm of human chromosome 5.