First of all, we greatly appreciate the Doctor's comments and agree in some senses. While we were doing experiments, we had similar thoughts on the results. However, the fulllength cDNA sequence was exactly as we reported. We will begin responding to his comments with the findings of reviewer 2. When we prepared and submitted the manuscript, reviewer 2 had the following comments (28 Dec 2004, Ref: IJC-04-1969.R1):
''I don't find it appropriate to call the identified novel gene and to provide a new name for it. A genome search with a bit of the sequence around ATG of TRP-1 reveals one single hit at the TMX2 locus. The same is true using a sequence around the stop codon. This TMX2 locus encodes cDNAs that have already been reported. One report refers to the gene product as the CGI-31 protein (mentioned in the manuscript). This gene product shows 92% identity with TRP-1. Another report uses the designation TMX2 (Thioredoxin-related transmembrane protein 2: Meng et al. Cloning and identification of a novel cDNA coding thioredoxin-related transmembrane protein 2. Biochem Genet 2003;41:99). The latter is not referred to in the manuscript, although the TMX2 was here described to contain both the thioredox-related domain and a Myb-related domain. It thus seems that TRX-1 is a variant of TMX2/CGI-31. Whether the small alterations in aa sequence observed is due to natural variations in sequence or to alternative splicing (or to cloning effects), remains to be determined. Curiously, the TRP-1 variant seems to have a better Myb-fit than TMX2/ CGI-31 with three properly spaced in TRP-1 and only one found in TMX2/CGI-31 0 .
Reviewer 2 suggested that TRP-1 is a variant of TMX2/ CGI-31. After the revision of the manuscript, it is stressed in