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Albumins
Albumin is a family of globular proteins, the most common of which are the serum albumins. All of the proteins of the albumin family are water-soluble, moderately soluble in concentrated salt solutions, and experience heat denaturation. Albumins are commonly found in blood plasma and differ from other blood proteins in that they are not glycosylated. Substances containing albumins are called ''albuminoids''. A number of blood transport proteins are evolutionarily related in the albumin family, including serum albumin, alpha-fetoprotein, vitamin D-binding protein and afamin. This family is only found in vertebrates. ''Albumins'' in a less strict sense can mean other proteins that coagulate under certain conditions. See ' for lactalbumin, ovalbumin and plant "2S albumin". Function Albumins in general are transport proteins that bind to various ligands and carry them around. Human types include: * Human serum albumin is the main protein of human blood plasma. It makes up arou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bovine Serum Albumin
Bovine serum albumin (BSA or "Fraction V") is a serum albumin protein derived from cows. It is often used as a protein concentration standard in lab experiments. The nickname "Fraction V" refers to albumin being the fifth fraction of the original Edwin Cohn purification methodology that made use of differential solubility characteristics of plasma proteins. By manipulating solvent concentrations, pH, salt levels, and temperature, Cohn was able to pull out successive "fractions" of blood plasma. The process was first commercialized with human albumin for medical use and later adopted for production of BSA. Properties The full-length BSA precursor polypeptide is 607 amino acids (AAs) in length. An N-terminal 18-residue signal peptide is cut off from the precursor protein upon secretion, hence the initial protein product contains 589 amino acid residues. An additional six amino acids are cleaved to yield the mature BSA protein that contains 583 amino acids. BSA has thre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lactalbumin
Lactalbumin, also known as "whey protein", is the albumin contained in milk and obtained from whey. Lactalbumin is found in the milk of many mammals. There are alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ... and beta lactalbumins; both are contained in milk. Targeted small scientific studies suggest that certain types of lactalbumin (whey protein) may improve immune responsiveness and increase levels of glutathione systemically in animals and which apparently possess antiviral (against viruses), anti-apoptotic (impede cell death) and anti-tumor (against cancers or tumors) activities in humans, but larger and better studies are needed to confirm these attributions. See also * Alpha-lactalbumin * Beta-lactoglobulin References Notes External links * {{Authority contr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denaturation (biochemistry)
In biochemistry, denaturation is a process in which proteins or nucleic acids lose folded structure present in their native state due to various factors, including application of some external stress or compound, such as a strong acid or base, a concentrated inorganic salt, an organic solvent (e.g., alcohol or chloroform), agitation, radiation, or heat. If proteins in a living cell are denatured, this results in disruption of cell activity and possibly cell death. Protein denaturation is also a consequence of cell death. Denatured proteins can exhibit a wide range of characteristics, from conformational change and loss of solubility or dissociation of cofactors to aggregation due to the exposure of hydrophobic groups. The loss of solubility as a result of denaturation is called ''coagulation''. Denatured proteins, e.g., metalloenzymes, lose their 3D structure or metal cofactor, and therefore, cannot function. Proper protein folding is key to whether a globular or memb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood Plasma
Blood plasma is a light Amber (color), amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but which contains Blood protein, proteins and other constituents of whole blood in Suspension (chemistry), suspension. It makes up about 55% of the body's total blood volume. It is the Intravascular compartment, intravascular part of extracellular fluid (all body fluid outside cells). It is mostly water (up to 95% by volume), and contains important dissolved proteins (6–8%; e.g., serum albumins, globulins, and fibrinogen), glucose, clotting factors, electrolytes (, , , , , etc.), hormones, carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation), and oxygen. It plays a vital role in an intravascular osmotic effect that keeps electrolyte concentration balanced and protects the body from infection and other blood-related disorders. Blood plasma can be separated from whole blood through blood fractionation, by adding an anticoagulant to a tube ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protein Family
A protein family is a group of evolutionarily related proteins. In many cases, a protein family has a corresponding gene family, in which each gene encodes a corresponding protein with a 1:1 relationship. The term "protein family" should not be confused with family as it is used in taxonomy. Proteins in a family descend from a common ancestor and typically have similar three-dimensional structures, functions, and significant sequence similarity. Sequence similarity (usually amino-acid sequence) is one of the most common indicators of homology, or common evolutionary ancestry. Some frameworks for evaluating the significance of similarity between sequences use sequence alignment methods. Proteins that do not share a common ancestor are unlikely to show statistically significant sequence similarity, making sequence alignment a powerful tool for identifying the members of protein families. Families are sometimes grouped together into larger clades called superfamilies based on st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wnt Protein
In cellular biology, the Wnt signaling pathways are a group of signal transduction pathways which begin with proteins that pass signals into a cell through cell surface receptors. The name Wnt, pronounced "wint", is a portmanteau created from the names Wingless and Int-1. Wnt signaling pathways use either nearby cell-cell communication (paracrine) or same-cell communication (autocrine). They are highly evolutionarily conserved in animals, which means they are similar across animal species from fruit flies to humans. Three Wnt signaling pathways have been characterized: the canonical Wnt pathway, the noncanonical planar cell polarity pathway, and the noncanonical Wnt/calcium pathway. All three pathways are activated by the binding of a Wnt-protein ligand to a Frizzled family receptor, which passes the biological signal to the Dishevelled protein inside the cell. The canonical Wnt pathway leads to regulation of gene transcription, and is thought to be negatively regulated in part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isoelectric Point
The isoelectric point (pI, pH(I), IEP), is the pH at which a molecule carries no net electric charge, electrical charge or is electrically neutral in the statistical mean. The standard nomenclature to represent the isoelectric point is pH(I). However, pI is also used. For concision, brevity, this article uses pI. The net charge on the molecule is affected by pH of its surrounding environment and can become more positively or negatively charged due to the gain or loss, respectively, of protons#In Physics and biochemistry, protons (H+). Surfaces naturally charge to form a double layer (interfacial), double layer. In the common case when the surface charge-determining ions are H+/HO−, the net surface charge is affected by the pH of the liquid in which the solid is submerged. The pI value can affect the solubility of a molecule at a given pH. Such molecules have minimum solubility in water or salt solutions at the pH that corresponds to their pI and often precipitate out of Solutio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpha-fetoprotein
Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP, α-fetoprotein; also sometimes called alpha-1-fetoprotein, alpha-fetoglobulin, or alpha fetal protein) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''AFP'' gene. The ''AFP'' gene is located on the ''q'' arm of chromosome 4 (4q13.3). Maternal AFP serum level is used to screen for Down syndrome, neural tube defects, and other chromosomal abnormalities. AFP is a major plasma protein produced by the yolk sac and the fetal liver during fetal development. It is thought to be the fetal analog of serum albumin. AFP binds to copper, nickel, fatty acids and bilirubin and is found in monomeric, dimeric and trimeric forms. Structure AFP is a glycoprotein of 591 amino acids and a carbohydrate moiety. Function The function of AFP in adult humans is unknown. AFP is the most abundant plasma protein found in the human fetus. In the fetus, AFP is produced by both the liver and the yolk sac. It is believed to function as a carrier protein (similar to albumin) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vitamin D-binding Protein
Vitamin D-binding protein (DBP), also/originally known as gc-globulin (group-specific component), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''GC'' gene. DBP is genetically the oldest member of the albuminoid family and appeared early in the evolution of vertebrates. Structure Human GC is a glycosylated alpha-globulin, ~58 kDa in size. Its 458 amino acids are coded for by 1690 nucleotides on chromosome 4 (4q11–q13). The primary structure contains 28 cysteine residues forming multiple disulfide bonds. GC contains 3 domains. Domain 1 is composed of 10 alpha helices, domain 2 of 9, and domain 3 of 4. Function Vitamin D-binding protein belongs to the albumin gene family, together with human serum albumin and alpha-fetoprotein. It is a multifunctional protein found in plasma, ascitic fluid, cerebrospinal fluid and on the surface of many cell types. It is able to bind the various forms of vitamin D including ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) and cholecalciferol (vitamin D3), the 25- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogeny
A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA. In other words, it is a branching diagram or a tree (graph theory), tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities based upon similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics. In evolutionary biology, all life on Earth is theoretically part of a single phylogenetic tree, indicating common ancestry. Phylogenetics is the study of phylogenetic trees. The main challenge is to find a phylogenetic tree representing optimal evolutionary ancestry between a set of species or taxa. computational phylogenetics, Computational phylogenetics (also phylogeny inference) focuses on the algorithms involved in finding optimal phylogenetic tree in the phylogenetic landscape. Phylogene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extracellular Matrix Protein 1
Extracellular matrix protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ECM1'' gene. This gene encodes an extracellular protein containing motifs with a cysteine pattern characteristic of the cysteine pattern of the ligand-binding "double-loop" domains of the albumin protein family. This gene maps outside the epidermal differentiation complex (EDC), a cluster of three gene families involved in epidermal differentiation. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been described. Diseases ECM1 is implicated in breast cancer, thyroid cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and other cancers, and also in ulcerative colitis Germline mutations in ECM-1 cause the genetic disease lipoid proteinosis. Autoimmune attack on ECM-1 is responsible for lichen sclerosus. (see the Atlas of Genetics and Cytogenetics in Oncology and Haematology The Atlas of Genetics and Cytogenetics in Oncology and Haematology, created in 1997 by Jean-Loup Huret (with bioinforma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chromosome 4
Chromosome 4 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 4 spans more than 190 million base pairs (the building material of DNA) and represents between 6 and 6.5 percent of the total DNA in cells. Genomics The chromosome is ~193 megabases in length. In a 2012 paper, 775 protein-encoding genes were identified on this chromosome.Chen LC, Liu MY, Hsiao YC, Choong WK, Wu HY, Hsu WL, Liao PC, Sung TY, Tsai SF, Yu JS, Chen YJ (2012) Decoding the disease-associated proteins encoded in the human chromosome 4. J Proteome Res 211 (27.9%) of these coding sequences did not have any experimental evidence at the protein level, in 2012. 271 appear to be membrane proteins. 54 have been classified as cancer-associated proteins. Genes Number of genes The following are some of the gene count estimates of human chromosome 4. Because researchers use different approaches to genome annotation their predictions of the number of genes o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
