Protocadherin gamma-A12 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PCDHGA12gene.[1][2]
This gene is a member of the protocadherin gamma gene cluster, one of three related clusters tandemly linked on chromosome five. These gene clusters have an immunoglobulin-like organization, suggesting that a novel mechanism may be involved in their regulation and expression. The gamma gene cluster includes 22 genes divided into 3 subfamilies. Subfamily A contains 12 genes, subfamily B contains 7 genes and 2 pseudogenes, and the more distantly related subfamily C contains 3 genes. The tandem array of 22 large, variable region exons are followed by a constant region, containing 3 exons shared by all genes in the cluster. Each variable region exon encodes the extracellular region, which includes 6 cadherin ectodomains and a transmembrane region. The constant region exons encode the common cytoplasmic region. These neural cadherin-like cell adhesion proteins most likely play a critical role in the establishment and function of specific cell-cell connections in the brain. Alternative splicing has been described for the gamma cluster genes.[2]
References
↑Wu Q, Maniatis T (Jul 1999). "A striking organization of a large family of human neural cadherin-like cell adhesion genes". Cell. 97 (6): 779–90. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80789-8. PMID10380929.
Nollet F, Kools P, van Roy F (2000). "Phylogenetic analysis of the cadherin superfamily allows identification of six major subfamilies besides several solitary members". J. Mol. Biol. 299 (3): 551–72. doi:10.1006/jmbi.2000.3777. PMID10835267.
Nagase T, Ishikawa K, Miyajima N, et al. (1998). "Prediction of the coding sequences of unidentified human genes. IX. The complete sequences of 100 new cDNA clones from brain which can code for large proteins in vitro". DNA Res. 5 (1): 31–9. doi:10.1093/dnares/5.1.31. PMID9628581.
Matsuyoshi N, Imamura S (1997). "Multiple cadherins are expressed in human fibroblasts". Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 235 (2): 355–8. doi:10.1006/bbrc.1997.6707. PMID9199196.