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Protocadherin alpha-2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PCDHA2 gene.[5][6]

This gene is a member of the protocadherin alpha gene cluster, one of three related gene clusters tandemly linked on chromosome five that demonstrate an unusual genomic organization similar to that of B-cell and T-cell receptor gene clusters. The alpha gene cluster is composed of 15 cadherin superfamily genes related to the mouse CNR genes and consists of 13 highly similar and 2 more distantly related coding sequences. The tandem array of 15 N-terminal exons, or variable exons, are followed by downstream C-terminal exons, or constant exons, which are shared by all genes in the cluster. The large, uninterrupted N-terminal exons each encode six cadherin ectodomains while the C-terminal exons encode the cytoplasmic domain.

These neural cadherin-like cell adhesion proteins are integral plasma membrane proteins that most likely play a critical role in the establishment and function of specific cell-cell connections in the brain. Alternative splicing has been observed and additional variants have been suggested but their full-length nature has yet to be determined.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c GRCh38: Ensembl release 89: ENSG00000204969Ensembl, May 2017
  2. ^ a b c GRCm38: Ensembl release 89: ENSMUSG00000104148Ensembl, May 2017
  3. ^ “Human PubMed Reference:”. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
  4. ^ “Mouse PubMed Reference:”. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
  5. ^ 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. PMID 10380929. S2CID 6014717.
  6. ^ a b “Entrez Gene: PCDHA2 protocadherin alpha 2”.

Further reading