PCDHA4

Protocadherin alpha 4
PDB rendering based on 1wuz.
Available structures PDB 1wuz
Identifiers
Symbols	PCDHA4; CNR1; CNRN1; CRNR1; MGC138307; MGC142169; PCDH-ALPHA4
External IDs	OMIM: 606310 MGI: 1298406 HomoloGene: 75097 GeneCards: PCDHA4 Gene
Gene Ontology Molecular function • calcium ion binding Cellular component • plasma membrane • integral to plasma membrane Biological process • cell adhesion • homophilic cell adhesion • nervous system development Sources: Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs
Species	Human	Mouse
Entrez	56144	12936
Ensembl	ENSG00000204967	n/a
UniProt	Q9UN74	n/a
RefSeq (mRNA)	NM_018907.2	NM_007766.2
RefSeq (protein)	NP_061730.1	NP_031792.1
Location (UCSC)	Chr 5: 140.19 – 140.39 Mb	n/a
PubMed search	[1]	[2]

Protocadherin alpha-4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PCDHA4 gene.^[1][2][3]

This gene is a member of the protocadherin alpha gene cluster, one of three related gene clusters tandemly linked on chromosome five that demonstrate an unusual genomic organization similar to that of B-cell and T-cell receptor gene clusters. The alpha gene cluster is composed of 15 cadherin superfamily genes related to the mouse CNR genes and consists of 13 highly similar and 2 more distantly related coding sequences. The tandem array of 15 N-terminal exons, or variable exons, are followed by downstream C-terminal exons, or constant exons, which are shared by all genes in the cluster. The large, uninterrupted N-terminal exons each encode six cadherin ectodomains while the C-terminal exons encode the cytoplasmic domain. These neural cadherin-like cell adhesion proteins are integral plasma membrane proteins that most likely play a critical role in the establishment and function of specific cell-cell connections in the brain. Alternative splicing has been observed and additional variants have been suggested but their full-length nature has yet to be determined.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wu Q, Maniatis T (Jul 1999). "A striking organization of a large family of human neural cadherin-like cell adhesion genes". Cell 97 (6): 779–90. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80789-8. PMID 10380929. 
2. ^ Sugino H, Hamada S, Yasuda R, Tuji A, Matsuda Y, Fujita M, Yagi T (Apr 2000). "Genomic organization of the family of CNR cadherin genes in mice and humans". Genomics 63 (1): 75–87. doi:10.1006/geno.1999.6066. PMID 10662547. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Entrez Gene: PCDHA4 protocadherin alpha 4". http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=gene&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=56144. 

Further reading

• Yagi T, Takeichi M (2000). "Cadherin superfamily genes: functions, genomic organization, and neurologic diversity". Genes Dev. 14 (10): 1169–80. PMID 10817752. 
• Nollet F, Kools P, van Roy F (2000). "Phylogenetic analysis of the cadherin superfamily allows identification of six major subfamilies besides several solitary members". J. Mol. Biol. 299 (3): 551–72. doi:10.1006/jmbi.2000.3777. PMID 10835267. 
• Senzaki K, Ogawa M, Yagi T (2000). "Proteins of the CNR family are multiple receptors for Reelin". Cell 99 (6): 635–47. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(00)81552-4. PMID 10612399. 
• Wu Q, Maniatis T (2000). "Large exons encoding multiple ectodomains are a characteristic feature of protocadherin genes". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97 (7): 3124–9. doi:10.1073/pnas.060027397. PMC 16203. PMID 10716726. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=16203. 
• Wu Q, Zhang T, Cheng JF, et al. (2001). "Comparative DNA Sequence Analysis of Mouse and Human Protocadherin Gene Clusters". Genome Res. 11 (3): 389–404. doi:10.1101/gr.167301. PMC 311048. PMID 11230163. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=311048. 
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH, et al. (2003). "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. doi:10.1073/pnas.242603899. PMC 139241. PMID 12477932. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=139241. 
• Schmutz J, Martin J, Terry A, et al. (2004). "The DNA sequence and comparative analysis of human chromosome 5". Nature 431 (7006): 268–74. doi:10.1038/nature02919. PMID 15372022. 
• Stelzl U, Worm U, Lalowski M, et al. (2005). "A human protein-protein interaction network: a resource for annotating the proteome". Cell 122 (6): 957–68. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2005.08.029. PMID 16169070.