We have cloned and expressed the cDNA for human liver mevalonate pyrophosphate decarboxylase, an enzyme of the cholesterol synthesis pathway. This cDNA encodes a 400 amino acid protein (43 kDa) which resembles the coding sequence of an unidentified and incomplete open reading frame adjacent to the COQ2 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We also found an expression sequence tag clone made from human infant brain cDNA to be almost identical to our cDNA sequence.
NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCES CODING FOR MEVALONATE PYROPHOSPHATE DECARBOXYLASE