PCDHGA12 explained

Protocadherin gamma-A12 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PCDHGA12 gene.^{[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.

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 .
• Clark HF . The Secreted Protein Discovery Initiative (SPDI), a Large-Scale Effort to Identify Novel Human Secreted and Transmembrane Proteins: A Bioinformatics Assessment . Genome Res. . 13 . 10 . 2265–70 . 2003 . 12975309 . 10.1101/gr.1293003 . 403697 . vanc. Gurney AL . Abaya E . 3 . Baker . K . Baldwin . D . Brush . J . Chen . J . Chow . B . Chui . C .
• Wu Q . Comparative DNA Sequence Analysis of Mouse and Human Protocadherin Gene Clusters . Genome Res. . 11 . 3 . 389–404 . 2001 . 11230163 . 10.1101/gr.167301 . 311048 . vanc. Zhang T . Cheng JF . 3 . Kim . Y . Grimwood . J . Schmutz . J . Dickson . M . Noonan . JP . Zhang . MQ .
• 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 .
• Nagase T . 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 . 1998 . 9628581 . 10.1093/dnares/5.1.31 . vanc. Ishikawa K . Miyajima N . 3 . Tanaka . A . Kotani . H . Nomura . N . Ohara . O . free .
• Matsuyoshi N, Imamura S . Multiple cadherins are expressed in human fibroblasts . Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. . 235 . 2 . 355–8 . 1997 . 9199196 . 10.1006/bbrc.1997.6707 .

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: PCDHGA12 protocadherin gamma subfamily A, 12.