Cloning and characterization of a new silver-stainable protein SSP29, a member of the LRR family

Silver-stainable proteins (SSPs) are aspartic acid-rich nuclear proteins which are silver stained under very specific conditions. Using a degenerate oligodeoxyncleotide probe which codes for acidic amino acid residues, a cDNA for a new SSP, referred to as SSP29, has been isolated. The cDNA-derived amino acid sequence shows SSP29 has a molecular mass of 29 kDa, leucine-rich repeats (LRR) near the NH2-terminal region and acidic clusters at the COOH-terminal portion, indicating that SSP29 is also a member of the LRR subfamily of acidic proteins which have been shown to be involved in antigen-mediated cellular responses, leukemogenesis and differentiation. SSP29 can be stained by Ag-NOR staining. SSP29 is expressed in all human tissues and cell lines tested, localized to nucleoplasm and translocated partially to the nucleoli after heat shock. Its interaction with RNA polymerase I suggests that SSP29 may participate in signal transduction that directs nucleolar activities by regulating ribosomal RNA biosynthesis.