Molecular studies on chicken melanoma differentiation associated gene-9 (mda-9).

BACKGROUND Melanoma differentiation associated (mda) genes in human encode a protein which has a surprising variety and diversity of interaction partners. It is a positive regulator of cancer cell progression in breast cancer, melanoma, and other human cancers. It regulates cell motility and invasion by altering defined biochemical and signalling pathways. METHODS Suppressive subtractive hybridisation (SSH) has been done using a cDNA library prepared from lipopolysaccharides (LPS) stimulated and non-stimulated chicken spleen cells. Then PCR analysis and in situ hybridisation were done for further studies. RESULTS This approach resulted in the identification of important chicken mda fragment. The obtained fragment was about 450bp covering the area from position 500 to position 950 of the human homologue. The expression analysis showed a wide variation in tissues and cell lines. In situ studies revealed mRNA expression in LPS stimulated tissues. CONCLUSION In this study a homologue for a chicken novel gene was described. The chicken melanoma differentiation associated gene-9 (mda-9) gene was found to be expressed in many tissues and cell lines in different levels. The stimulation time course was found to have a wide effect on both tissues and cell lines. The mda-9 gene was localised by in situ hybridisation and the effect of LPS stimulation was investigated.