Drosophila Discs large (Dlg), Scribble (Scrib) and Lethal giant larvae (Lgl) act in concert as regulators of epithelial polarity, and human homologs of Drosophila dlg, scrib, and lgl are cancer-associated genes. LLGL1, LLGL2, and LLGL3/STXBP5 genes, encoding LGL1, LGL2, and LGL3/Tomosyn, respectively, are human homologs of Drosophila lgl gene. Here, we identified and characterized LLGL4 (also known as STXBP5L) gene encoding LGL4 protein, by using bioinformatics. Uncharacterized human KIAA1006 cDNA (AB023223) was derived from human LLGL4 gene. LLGL4 mRNA was expressed in kidney, brain hippocampus, and also in lung carcinoid, and germ cell tumors. LLGL4 gene, consisting of 28 exons, was mapped to human chromosome 3q13.33. Mouse A830015P08Rik cDNA (NM_172440.1) was a 3'-truncated partial Llgl4 cDNA. Nucleotide sequence of full-length mouse Llgl4 cDNA was determined in silico by assembling A830015P08Rik cDNA, BU609516 EST and last two exons of Llgl4 gene within mouse genome clone RP24-174G4 (AC118742.3). Human LGL4 showed 95.8% total-amino-acid identity with mouse Lgl4, and 68.4% total-amino-acid identity with human LGL3. LGLH1 domain (codon 1-11 of LGL4), LGLH2 domain (codon 52-98) and LGLH3 domain (codon 994-1054) were identified as novel conserved regions among LGL family members. LGL1 and LGL2 consist of LGLH1, LGLH2, LGLH3 domains and five WD40 repeats, while LGL3 and LGL4 consist of LGLH1, LGLH2, LGLH3 domains, five WD40 repeats and the C-terminal Syntaxin-binding SNARE domain. This is the first report on identification and characterization of human LLGL4 and mouse Llgl4 genes.

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