NRCAM explained

Neuronal cell adhesion molecule is a protein that in humans is encoded by the NRCAM gene.^{[1] [2]}

Cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) are members of the immunoglobulin superfamily. This gene encodes a neuronal cell adhesion molecule with multiple immunoglobulin-like C2-type domains and fibronectin type-III domains. This ankyrin-binding protein is involved in neuron-neuron adhesion and promotes directional signaling during axonal cone growth. This gene is also expressed in non-neural tissues and may play a general role in cell-cell communication via signaling from its intracellular domain to the actin cytoskeleton during directional cell migration. Allelic variants of this gene have been associated with autism^[3] and addiction vulnerability. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms.

Further reading

• Grumet M . Nr-CAM: a cell adhesion molecule with ligand and receptor functions . Cell Tissue Res. . 290 . 2 . 423–8 . 1997 . 9321706 . 10.1007/s004410050949 . 24012715 .
• Sakurai T, Lustig M, Nativ M, etal . Induction of neurite outgrowth through contactin and Nr-CAM by extracellular regions of glial receptor tyrosine phosphatase beta . J. Cell Biol. . 136 . 4 . 907–18 . 1997 . 9049255 . 10.1083/jcb.136.4.907 . 2132488 .
• Nagase T, Ishikawa K, Nakajima D, etal . Prediction of the coding sequences of unidentified human genes. VII. The complete sequences of 100 new cDNA clones from brain which can code for large proteins in vitro . DNA Res. . 4 . 2 . 141–50 . 1997 . 9205841 . 10.1093/dnares/4.2.141 . free .
• Wang B, Williams H, Du JS, etal . Alternative splicing of human NrCAM in neural and nonneural tissues . Mol. Cell. Neurosci. . 10 . 5–6 . 287–95 . 1998 . 9604207 . 10.1006/mcne.1997.0658 . 12028546 .
• Moré MI, Kirsch FP, Rathjen FG . Targeted ablation of NrCAM or ankyrin-B results in disorganized lens fibers leading to cataract formation . J. Cell Biol. . 154 . 1 . 187–96 . 2001 . 11449000 . 10.1083/jcb.200104038 . 2196853 .
• Dry K, Kenwrick S, Rosenthal A, Platzer M . The complete sequence of the human locus for NgCAM-related cell adhesion molecule reveals a novel alternative exon in chick and man and conserved genomic organization for the L1 subfamily . Gene . 273 . 1 . 115–22 . 2001 . 11483367 . 10.1016/S0378-1119(01)00493-0 .
• Jenkins SM, Bennett V . Ankyrin-G coordinates assembly of the spectrin-based membrane skeleton, voltage-gated sodium channels, and L1 CAMs at Purkinje neuron initial segments . J. Cell Biol. . 155 . 5 . 739–46 . 2002 . 11724816 . 10.1083/jcb.200109026 . 2150881 .
• Aitkenhead M, Wang SJ, Nakatsu MN, etal . Identification of endothelial cell genes expressed in an in vitro model of angiogenesis: induction of ESM-1, (beta)ig-h3, and NrCAM . Microvascular Research . 63 . 2 . 159–71 . 2002 . 11866539 . 10.1006/mvre.2001.2380 .
• Pavlou O, Theodorakis K, Falk J, etal . Analysis of interactions of the adhesion molecule TAG-1 and its domains with other immunoglobulin superfamily members . Mol. Cell. Neurosci. . 20 . 3 . 367–81 . 2002 . 12139915 . 10.1006/mcne.2002.1105 . 714233 .
• Conacci-Sorrell ME, Ben-Yedidia T, Shtutman M, etal . Nr-CAM is a target gene of the beta-catenin/LEF-1 pathway in melanoma and colon cancer and its expression enhances motility and confers tumorigenesis . Genes Dev. . 16 . 16 . 2058–72 . 2002 . 12183361 . 10.1101/gad.227502 . 186445 .
• Nakayama M, Kikuno R, Ohara O . Protein-protein interactions between large proteins: two-hybrid screening using a functionally classified library composed of long cDNAs . Genome Res. . 12 . 11 . 1773–84 . 2003 . 12421765 . 10.1101/gr.406902 . 187542 .
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH, etal . Generation and initial analysis of more than 15,000 full-length human and mouse cDNA sequences . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. . 99 . 26 . 16899–903 . 2003 . 12477932 . 10.1073/pnas.242603899 . 139241 . 2002PNAS...9916899M . free .
• Hillier LW, Fulton RS, Fulton LA, etal . The DNA sequence of human chromosome 7 . Nature . 424 . 6945 . 157–64 . 2003 . 12853948 . 10.1038/nature01782 . 2003Natur.424..157H . free .
• Custer AW, Kazarinova-Noyes K, Sakurai T, etal . The role of the ankyrin-binding protein NrCAM in node of Ranvier formation . J. Neurosci. . 23 . 31 . 10032–9 . 2003 . 14602817 . 6740847 . 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.23-31-10032.2003.
• Ota T, Suzuki Y, Nishikawa T, etal . Complete sequencing and characterization of 21,243 full-length human cDNAs . Nat. Genet. . 36 . 1 . 40–5 . 2004 . 14702039 . 10.1038/ng1285 . free .
• Hutcheson HB, Olson LM, Bradford Y, etal . Examination of NRCAM, LRRN3, KIAA0716, and LAMB1 as autism candidate genes . BMC Med. Genet. . 5. 12 . 2004 . 15128462 . 10.1186/1471-2350-5-12 . 420465 . free .
• Bonora E, Lamb JA, Barnby G, etal . Mutation screening and association analysis of six candidate genes for autism on chromosome 7q . Eur. J. Hum. Genet. . 13 . 2 . 198–207 . 2005 . 15523497 . 10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201315 . free .
• Ishiguro H, Liu QR, Gong JP, etal . NrCAM in addiction vulnerability: positional cloning, drug-regulation, haplotype-specific expression, and altered drug reward in knockout mice . Neuropsychopharmacology . 31 . 3 . 572–84 . 2006 . 16123759 . 10.1038/sj.npp.1300855 . free .

Notes and References

1. Lane RP, Chen XN, Yamakawa K, Vielmetter J, Korenberg JR, Dreyer WJ . Characterization of a highly conserved human homolog to the chicken neural cell surface protein Bravo/Nr-CAM that maps to chromosome band 7q31 . Genomics . 35 . 3 . 456–65 . Dec 1996 . 8812479 . 10.1006/geno.1996.0385 .
2. Web site: Entrez Gene: NRCAM neuronal cell adhesion molecule.
3. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol . 2008 . Association of the neuronal cell adhesion molecule (NRCAM) gene variants with autism . Marui T, Funatogawa I, Koishi S, etal . 10.1017/S1461145708009127 . 18664314 . 12 . 1 . 1–10. free .