Background:

LZIC (leucine zipper and CTNNBIP1 domain containing) is a 190 amino acid protein that belongs to the CTNNBIP1 family. Ubiquitously expressed, LZIC is found at highest levels in kidney and is upregulated in a few gastric carcinomas. The gene encoding LZIC maps to human chromosome 1, which spans 260 million base pairs, contains over 3,000 genes and comprises nearly 8% of the human genome. Chromosome 1 houses a large number of disease-associated genes, including those that are involved in familial adenomatous polyposis, Stickler syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Gaucher disease, schizophrenia and Usher syndrome. Aberrations in chromosome 1 are found in a variety of cancers, including head and neck cancer, malignant melanoma and multiple myeloma.