Keratin, type I cuticular Ha1 is a
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 ...
that in humans is encoded by the ''KRT31''
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 ...
.
Function
The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the keratin gene family. As a
Type I hair keratin
Hair keratin is a type of keratin found in hair and the nails.
Function
Originating from the embryonic epidermis, the hair follicle evolves into one of the most complex structures in the human body, comprising 7–8 distinct tissue sections. ...
, it is an acidic protein which
heterodimer
In biochemistry, a protein dimer is a macromolecular complex or multimer formed by two protein monomers, or single proteins, which are usually non-covalently bound. Many macromolecules, such as proteins or nucleic acids, form dimers. The word ...
izes with
type II keratin Type II keratins (or Type II cytokeratins) constitutes the Type II intermediate filaments (IFs) of the intracytoplasmatic cytoskeleton, which is present in all mammalian epithelial cells. The type 2 cytokeratins consist of basic or neutral, high mo ...
s to form hair and nails. The type I hair keratins are clustered in a region of
chromosome 17
Chromosome 17 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 17 spans more than 84 million base pairs (the building material of DNA) and represents between 2.5 and 3% of the total DN ...
q21.2 and have the same direction of transcription.
References
Further reading
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