Description
Product Characteristics: Neurexins are a family of proteins that function in the vertebrate nervous system as cell adhesion molecules and receptors. They are encoded by several unlinked genes of which two, NRXN1 and NRXN3, are among the largest known human genes. Three of the genes (NRXN1-3) utilize two alternate promoters and include numerous alternatively spliced exons to generate thousands of distinct mRNA transcripts and protein isoforms. The majority of transcripts are produced from the upstream promoter and encode alpha-neurexin isoforms, a much smaller number of transcripts are produced from the downstream promoter and encode beta-neurexin isoforms. The alpha-neurexins contain epidermal growth factor-like (EGF-like) sequences and laminin G domains, and have been shown to interact with neurexophilins. The beta-neurexins lack EGF-like sequences and contain fewer laminin G domains than alpha-neurexins. [provided by RefSeq].
Target Information: This gene encodes a member of a family of proteins that function in the nervous system as receptors and cell adhesion molecules. Extensive alternative splicing and the use of alternative promoters results in multiple transcript variants for this gene, but the full-length nature of many of these variants has not been determined. Transcripts that initiate from an upstream promoter encode alpha isoforms, which contain epidermal growth factor-like (EGF-like) sequences and laminin G domains. Transcripts initiating from the downstream promoter encode beta isoforms, which lack EGF-like sequences. [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2012]