Smith, A., Alrubaie, S., Coehlo, C., Leevers, S.J., Ashworth, A., Ashworth, A. (1999). Alternative splicing of the Drosophila PTEN gene.  Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1447(2-3): 313--317.

FBrf0112042

Research paper

Mutations in the human PTEN gene have been identified in a number of different tumour types, and in the hamartomatous polyposis syndromes Cowden disease and Bannayan-Zonana syndrome. The PTEN gene encodes a phosphatase that antagonises phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling by removing the 3' phosphate from phosphatidylinositol 3, 4,5-trisphosphate (PtdIns (3,4,5)P(3)). Here we show that the PTEN gene is conserved in the invertebrate Drosophila melanogaster and demonstrate that the gene undergoes alternative splicing.