PCDHGA11 explained

Protocadherin gamma-A11 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PCDHGA11 gene.^{[1] [2]}

This gene is a member of the protocadherin gamma gene cluster, one of three related clusters tandemly linked on chromosome 5. 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.

Further reading

• Nollet F, Kools P, van Roy F . Phylogenetic analysis of the cadherin superfamily allows identification of six major subfamilies besides several solitary members. . J. Mol. Biol. . 299 . 3 . 551–72 . 2000 . 10835267 . 10.1006/jmbi.2000.3777 .
• Yagi T, Takeichi M . Cadherin superfamily genes: functions, genomic organization, and neurologic diversity. . Genes Dev. . 14 . 10 . 1169–80 . 2000 . 10817752 . 10.1101/gad.14.10.1169. 44844497 . free .
• Waha A, Güntner S, Huang TH, etal . Epigenetic silencing of the protocadherin family member PCDH-gamma-A11 in astrocytomas. . Neoplasia . 7 . 3 . 193–9 . 2005 . 15799819 . 10.1593/neo.04490 . 1501138 .
• Wu Q, Zhang T, Cheng JF, etal . Comparative DNA sequence analysis of mouse and human protocadherin gene clusters. . Genome Res. . 11 . 3 . 389–404 . 2001 . 11230163 . 10.1101/gr.167301 . 311048 .
• Dias Neto E, Correa RG, Verjovski-Almeida S, etal . Shotgun sequencing of the human transcriptome with ORF expressed sequence tags. . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. . 97 . 7 . 3491–6 . 2000 . 10737800 . 10.1073/pnas.97.7.3491. 16267 . 2000PNAS...97.3491D . free .
• Wu Q, Maniatis T . Large exons encoding multiple ectodomains are a characteristic feature of protocadherin genes. . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. . 97 . 7 . 3124–9 . 2000 . 10716726 . 10.1073/pnas.060027397 . 16203 . free .
• Adams MD, Kerlavage AR, Fleischmann RD, etal . Initial assessment of human gene diversity and expression patterns based upon 83 million nucleotides of cDNA sequence. . Nature . 377 . 6547 Suppl . 3–174 . 1995 . 7566098 .

Notes and References

1. Wu Q, Maniatis T . A striking organization of a large family of human neural cadherin-like cell adhesion genes . Cell . 97 . 6 . 779–90 . Jul 1999 . 10380929 . 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80789-8 . 6014717 . free .
2. Web site: Entrez Gene: PCDHGA11 protocadherin gamma subfamily A, 11.