PCDHA4

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. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

Description

Protocadherin alpha 4

Tissue specificity

Tissue enhanced (brain)

Subcell location

Nucleoplasm, Plasma membrane, Cytosol

Predicted location

Membrane

Protein family

Mapped to neXtProt
Mapped to UniProt SWISS-PROT
Predicted membrane proteins

Chromosome

5 (140806929 - 141012347)

Ensembl ID

ENSG00000204967  (ver. 103.38)

Orthologs

-

UniProt

Q9UN74

neXtProt

NX_Q9UN74

Human splice variants

Protein structure