Cloning and molecular characterization of a human ortholog of Monodelphis TRAPD in ultraviolet B-induced melanoma.

The human ortholog of Monodelphis translocon-associated protein delta subunit gene (TRAPD) was identified as a differentially expressed transcript using the differential display technique, and the two phenotypically distinct opossum melanoma cell lines TD6b and TD15L2 as the tissue resource. The full-length cDNA of TRAPD that encodes a 144 amino acid protein was characterized. In addition, a relative quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction approach was used to analyse the expression patterns of TRAPD during different stages of tumour progression. TRAPD was upregulated in tumours of advanced stages. The results of this study implicate TRAPD as a candidate gene with potential functions that might be associated with ultraviolet-induced melanomagenesis and metastasis.