Description
Product Characteristics:
Protocadherins are a large family of cadherin-like cell adhesion proteins that are involved in the establishment and maintenance of neuronal connections in the brain. There are three protocadherin gene clusters, designated alpha, beta and gamma, all of which contain multiple tandemly arranged genes. PCDHB14 (Protocadherin beta 14) is a 798 amino acid protein that is one of 16 proteins in the protocadherin beta cluster. Unlike the alpha and gamma gene clusters whos genes are spliced to downstream constant region exons during transcription, members of the beta cluster (such as PCDHB14) do not use constant-region exons to produce mRNAs. As a result, each protocadherin beta gene encodes the transmembrane, extracellular and short cytoplasmic domains of the protein. Localized to the cell membrane, PCDHB14 is a single-pass type I membrane protein that contains six cadherin domains.
Subcellular location: Cell membrane
Synonyms: MGC120065, PCDBE_HUMAN, PCDH beta14, PCDH-beta-14, PCDHB 14, PCDHB14, Protocadherin beta 14, Protocadherin beta-14.
Target Information: This gene is a member of the protocadherin beta gene cluster, one of three related gene clusters tandemly linked on chromosome five. The gene clusters demonstrate an unusual genomic organization similar to that of B-cell and T-cell receptor gene clusters. The beta cluster contains 16 genes and 3 pseudogenes, each encoding 6 extracellular cadherin domains and a cytoplasmic tail that deviates from others in the cadherin superfamily. The extracellular domains interact in a homophilic manner to specify differential cell-cell connections. Unlike the alpha and gamma clusters, the transcripts from these genes are made up of only one large exon, not sharing common 3' exons as expected. These neural cadherin-like cell adhesion proteins are integral plasma membrane proteins. Their specific functions are unknown but they most likely play a critical role in the establishment and function of specific cell-cell neural connections. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]