Alpha-1-B glycoprotein is a 54.3 kDa

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

in humans that is encoded by the A1BG

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

. The protein encoded by this gene is a plasma glycoprotein of unknown function. The protein shows sequence similarity to the variable regions of some immunoglobulin supergene family member proteins. Patients who have pancreatic ductal

adenocarcinoma Adenocarcinoma (; plural adenocarcinomas or adenocarcinomata ; AC) is a type of cancerous tumor that can occur in several parts of the body. It is defined as neoplasia of epithelial tissue that has glandular origin, glandular characteristics, or ...

show an overexpression of A1BG in

pancreatic juice Pancreatic juice is a liquid secreted by the pancreas, which contains a number of digestive enzymes, including trypsinogen, chymotrypsinogen, elastase, carboxypeptidase, pancreatic lipase, nucleases and amylase. The pancreas is located in th ...

Gene

Neighborhood

A1BG is located on the negative DNA strand of

chromosome 19 Chromosome 19 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 19 spans more than 61.7 million base pairs, the building material of DNA. It is considered the most Gene density, gene-ri ...

from 58,858,172 – 58,864,865. Additionally, A1BG is located directly adjacent to the ZSCAN22 gene (58,838,385-58,853,712) on the positive DNA strand, as well as the ZNF837 (58,878,990 - 58,892,389, complement) and ZNF497 (58865723 - 58,874,214, complement) genes on the negative strand.

Expression

A1BG is expressed at high levels in the adult and fetal

liver The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...

. Additionally, the

mammary gland A mammary gland is an exocrine gland that produces milk in humans and other mammals. Mammals get their name from the Latin word ''mamma'', "breast". The mammary glands are arranged in organs such as the breasts in primates (for example, human ...

shows roughly half as much expression as the liver. Trace amounts of A1BG expression can be found in the

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

lung The lungs are the primary Organ (biology), organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the Vertebral column, backbone on either side of the heart. Their ...

lymph node A lymph node, or lymph gland, is a kidney-shaped organ of the lymphatic system and the adaptive immune system. A large number of lymph nodes are linked throughout the body by the lymphatic vessels. They are major sites of lymphocytes that includ ...

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

testis A testicle or testis ( testes) is the gonad in all male bilaterians, including humans, and is Homology (biology), homologous to the ovary in females. Its primary functions are the production of sperm and the secretion of Androgen, androgens, p ...

pancreas The pancreas (plural pancreases, or pancreata) is an Organ (anatomy), organ of the Digestion, digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdominal cavity, abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a ...

, and

. Liver

tumors A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

exhibit elevated levels of A1BG transcripts.

mRNA

mRNA structure

The gene contains 20 distinct

introns An intron is any Nucleic acid sequence, nucleotide sequence within a gene that is not expressed or operative in the final RNA product. The word ''intron'' is derived from the term ''intragenic region'', i.e., a region inside a gene."The notion of ...

Transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, often th ...

produces 15 different

mRNAs In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein. mRNA is created during the p ...

, 10

alternatively spliced Alternative splicing, alternative RNA splicing, or differential splicing, is an alternative RNA splicing, splicing process during gene expression that allows a single gene to produce different splice variants. For example, some exons of a gene ma ...

variants and 5 unspliced forms. There are 4 probable alternative promoters, 4 non overlapping alternative last

exons An exon is any part of a gene that will form a part of the final mature RNA produced by that gene after introns have been removed by RNA splicing. The term ''exon'' refers to both the DNA sequence within a gene and to the corresponding sequence i ...

and 7 validated alternative

polyadenylation Polyadenylation is the addition of a poly(A) tail to an RNA transcript, typically a messenger RNA (mRNA). The poly(A) tail consists of multiple adenosine monophosphates; in other words, it is a stretch of RNA that has only adenine bases. In euka ...

sites. The mRNAs appear to differ by truncation of the 5' end, truncation of the 3' end, presence or absence of 4 cassette exons, overlapping exons with different boundaries, splicing versus retention of 3 introns.

Protein

Properties

The San Diego Super Computer's Statistical Analysis of Protein (SAPS) program determined that alpha-1B glycoprotein has 495 amino acids residues, an isoelectric point of 5.47, and a molecular mass of 54.3 kDa. Additionally, it suggested that no transmembrane domains exist in alpha-1B glycoprotein. According to NCBI, the amino acid sequence MLVVFLLLWGVTWGPVTEA is a signal peptide on the N-terminus of the protein that might function as an endoplasmic reticulum import signal.

Post-translational modifications

The NetAcet 1.0 program calculated that the first five amino acid residues serve as an N-acetylation site. The NetGlycate 1.0 program predicted that the lysines located at residue 78, 114, and 227 serve as glycation points. The NetNES 1.1 program predicted the leucine at residue 47 to be a nuclear export signal. The NetNGlyc 1.0 program predicted four N-glycosylation sites - two of which are highly conserved internally repeated sequences. The NetCGlyc1.0 program predicted that none of the tryptophan residues serve as C-mannosylation sites.

Protein interactions

A study by Udby et al. showed that Cysteine-rich secretory protein 3 is a ligand of alpha-1B glycoprotein in human plasma and they suggest that the A1BG-CRISP-3 complex displays a similar function in protecting the circulation from a potentially harmful effect of free CRISP-3.

Sex-specific role in cardiac function

Female mice with cardiac conditional knockout of A1BG exhibit poor cardiac function, but male mice with the same knockout are unaffected.

Homology

Orthologs

In addition to the table below, alpha-1B glycoprotein is also conserved in the white-cheeked crested gibbon,

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the biology, genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow ba ...

, bolivian squirrel monkey,

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

, Chinese tree shrew,

Chinese hamster The Chinese hamster (''Cricetulus griseus'' or ''Cricetulus barabensis griseus'') is a rodent in the genus '' Cricetulus'' of the subfamily Cricetidae that originated in the deserts of northern China and Mongolia. They are distinguished by an unco ...

black flying fox The black flying fox or black fruit bat (''Pteropus alecto'') is a bat in the family Pteropodidae. It is among the largest bats in the world, but is considerably smaller than the largest species in its genus, ''Pteropus''. The black flying fox ...

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy ( ), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus ''Cavia'', family Caviidae. Animal fancy, Breeders tend to use the name "cavy" for the ani ...

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white animal coat, coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. ...

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are called co ...

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...

, and the

naked mole-rat The naked mole-rat (''Heterocephalus glaber''), also known as the sand puppy, is a burrowing rodent native to the Horn of Africa and parts of Kenya, notably in Somali regions. It is closely related to the blesmols and is the only species in th ...

. Additionally, it is very likely that A1BG is further conserved throughout the mammalian

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

Paralogs

paralogs Sequence homology is the biological homology between DNA, RNA, or protein sequences, defined in terms of shared ancestry in the evolutionary history of life. Two segments of DNA can have shared ancestry because of three phenomena: either a speci ...

have been found for alpha-1B glycoprotein.

Homologous domains

An initial NCBI Blast alignment of alpha-1B glycoprotein illustrates that the protein is mainly composed of three

immunoglobulin An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as pathogenic bacteria, bacteria and viruses, includin ...

domains. There is a large segment of amino acids from position 297 to 400 that is not shown to be an immunoglobulin domain. However, a NCBI BLAST alignment of just the amino acids from 297 to 400 does illustrate that the latter sequence is indeed a fourth immunoglobulin domain. Ultimately, alpha-1B glycoprotein seems to be primarily composed of four immunoglobulin domains.

Clinical significance

Steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome

The alpha-1-glycoprotein is upregulated 11-fold in the

urine Urine is a liquid by-product of metabolism in humans and many other animals. In placental mammals, urine flows from the Kidney (vertebrates), kidneys through the ureters to the urinary bladder and exits the urethra through the penile meatus (mal ...

of patients who have steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome. A1BG was present in 7/19 patients with SRNS and was absent from all patients with steroid sensitive nephrotic syndrome. The 13.8 kDa A1BG fragment had a high discriminatory power for steroid resistance in pediatric nephrotic syndrome, but is only present in a subset of patients.

References

External links

* {{UCSC gene info, A1BG