Abstract
An allegedly novel human trypsinogen cDNA clone termed trypsinogen hL was recently reported in the Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin (2003; 26: 361–364). This “new” trypsinogen sequence was isolated by PCR using human lung cDNAs as template and was presumed to be a new member of the human trypsinogen family. However, trypsinogen hL does not match any sequence in the human genome; whereas it is 100% identical to mouse trypsinogen 7. Thus, trypsinogen hL is not of human origin, and its cloning from a human cDNA library was clearly a result of contamination with mouse genetic material. Publication of this cloning artifact could have been avoided by a simple BLAST search of GenBank or other sequence databanks.
