PCDH8 explained

Protocadherin-8 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PCDH8 gene.^{[1] [2] [3]}

This gene belongs to the protocadherin gene family, a subfamily of the cadherin superfamily. The gene encodes an integral membrane protein that is thought to function in cell adhesion in a CNS-specific manner. Unlike classical cadherins, which are generally encoded by 15-17 exons, this gene includes only 3 exons. Notable is the large first exon encoding the extracellular region, including 6 cadherin domains and a transmembrane region. Alternative splicing yields isoforms with unique cytoplasmic tails.

Further reading

• Yagi T, Takeichi M . Cadherin superfamily genes: functions, genomic organization, and neurologic diversity . Genes Dev. . 14 . 10 . 1169–80 . 2000 . 10817752 . 10.1101/gad.14.10.1169. 44844497 . free .
• Nollet F, Kools P, van Roy F . Phylogenetic analysis of the cadherin superfamily allows identification of six major subfamilies besides several solitary members . J. Mol. Biol. . 299 . 3 . 551–72 . 2000 . 10835267 . 10.1006/jmbi.2000.3777 .
• Wu Q, Maniatis T . A striking organization of a large family of human neural cadherin-like cell adhesion genes . Cell . 97 . 6 . 779–90 . 1999 . 10380929 . 10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80789-8 . 6014717 . free .
• Yamagata K, Andreasson KI, Sugiura H, etal . Arcadlin is a neural activity-regulated cadherin involved in long term potentiation . J. Biol. Chem. . 274 . 27 . 19473–1979 . 1999 . 10383464 . 10.1074/jbc.274.27.19473 . free .
• Wu Q, Maniatis T . Large exons encoding multiple ectodomains are a characteristic feature of protocadherin genes . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. . 97 . 7 . 3124–9 . 2000 . 10716726 . 10.1073/pnas.060027397 . 16203 . free .
• Wu Q, Zhang T, Cheng JF, etal . Comparative DNA Sequence Analysis of Mouse and Human Protocadherin Gene Clusters . Genome Res. . 11 . 3 . 389–404 . 2001 . 11230163 . 10.1101/gr.167301 . 311048 .
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH, etal . 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 . 2003 . 12477932 . 10.1073/pnas.242603899 . 139241 . 2002PNAS...9916899M . free .
• Bray NJ, Kirov G, Owen RJ, etal . Screening the human protocadherin 8 (PCDH8) gene in schizophrenia . . 1 . 3 . 187–91 . 2003 . 12884975 . 10.1034/j.1601-183X.2002.10307.x . free .
• Gerhard DS, Wagner L, Feingold EA, etal . The Status, Quality, and Expansion of the NIH Full-Length cDNA Project: The Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) . Genome Res. . 14 . 10B . 2121–7 . 2004 . 15489334 . 10.1101/gr.2596504 . 528928 .
• Lim J, Hao T, Shaw C, etal . A protein-protein interaction network for human inherited ataxias and disorders of Purkinje cell degeneration . Cell . 125 . 4 . 801–14 . 2006 . 16713569 . 10.1016/j.cell.2006.03.032 . 13709685 . free .

Notes and References

1. Strehl S, Glatt K, Liu QM, Glatt H, Lalande M . Characterization of two novel protocadherins (PCDH8 and PCDH9) localized on human chromosome 13 and mouse chromosome 14 . Genomics . 53 . 1 . 81–9 . Dec 1998 . 9787079 . 10.1006/geno.1998.5467 .
2. Strehl S, LaSalle JM, Lalande M . High-resolution analysis of DNA replication domain organization across an R/G-band boundary . Mol Cell Biol . 17 . 10 . 6157–66 . Oct 1997 . 10.1128/MCB.17.10.6157 . 9315676 . 232466 .
3. Web site: Entrez Gene: PCDH8 protocadherin 8.