HLA-B Associated Transcript 4 (BAT4)

A cluster of genes, BAT1-BAT5, has been localized in the vicinity of the genes for TNF alpha and TNF beta. These genes are all within the human major histocompatibility complex class III region. BAT4 is thought to be involved in some aspects of immunity. Within the cloned region, the genes for the tumor necrosis factors (TNFA; TNFB) and HLA-B were 210 kb apart. The human homolog of the mouse gene B144 (LST1) is located near TNFA. The presence of additional genes was suggested by a large cluster of CpG islands. With cosmid probes, 5 distinct transcripts were detected in RNA samples from a variety of cell lines and the corresponding cDNA clones were isolated. These 'HLA-B-associated transcripts' (BAT1-BAT5) mapped to different locations within a 160-kb region that included the TNFA and TNFB genes.