The aim of our study was to isolate novel gene(s) involved in cell differentiation and embryonic liver development. Mouse cded/lior was identified from subtraction hybridization of embryonic liver cDNA libraries as well as an adult mouse liver genomic DNA library. The full open reading frame of cded/lior encodes a 131-amino acid protein with 71.88% overall similarity to the PH domain of rat PLC-gamma1. A gapped search with the C-terminal region of CDED/LIOR revealed a 36-41% similarity to several proteins related to signal transduction and cell replication, such as ORC1 and KSR. Northern blot analysis of adult mouse tissues shows a strong 2.6-kb transcript restricted to heart and skeletal muscle. RT-PCR utilizing cded/lior-specific primers demonstrates cded/lior mRNAs in heart, brain, and liver tissue throughout mid-embryonic mouse gestation. cded/lior maps to the distal end of mouse Chromosome (Chr) 2. Analysis of the genomic structure for cded/lior demonstrated a single exon gene that is not an alternatively spliced isoform of PLC-gamma1. Analysis of the cded/lior promoter region revealed a high GC-content, high ratio of CpG/GpC, multiple GC-boxes, the lack of a TATA box, CTF/NFI element, and two MyoD-MCK binding sites. These characteristics are also found in several genes important in the regulation of cell growth or DNA synthesis, such as transforming growth factor-beta1, c-Ha-ras, nerve growth factor, epidermal growth factor receptor, and DNA polymerase beta. These results suggest that cded/lior is a mesoderm/muscle-specific transcript that may be involved in the mesodermal inductive and regulatory interactions required for liver formation and embryonic development.