TAFA: a novel secreted family with conserved cysteine residues and restricted expression in the brain.

We have discovered a family of small secreted proteins in Homo sapiens and Mus musculus using a novel database searching strategy. The family is composed of five highly homologous genes referred to as TAFA-1 to -5. The TAFA genes encode proteins of approximately 100 amino acids that contain conserved cysteine residues at fixed positions.

Human Crossveinless-2 is a novel inhibitor of bone morphogenetic proteins.

Drosophila Crossveinless-2 (dCV-2) is required for local activation of Mad phosphorylation in the fruit fly wing and has been postulated to be a positive regulator of BMP-mediated signaling. In contrast, the presence of 5 Chordin-like cysteine-rich domains in the CV-2 protein suggests that CV-2 belongs to a family of well-established inhibitors of BMP function that includes Chordin and Sog [Development 127 (2000) 3947]. We have identified a human homolog of Drosophila CV-2 (hCV-2).

Three new human members of the lipid transfer/lipopolysaccharide binding protein family (LT/LBP).

We have identified three novel, rarely expressed human genes that encode new members of the lipid transfer/lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LT/LBP) gene family based on sequence homology. BPI and other members of the LT/LBP family are structurally related proteins capable of binding phospholipids and lipopolysaccharides. Real-time PCR studies indicate that BPIL1 and BPIL3 are highly expressed in hypertrophic tonsils.