Alpha catenin

catenin (cadherin-associated protein), alpha 1, 102kDa
Model of human aldehyde oxidase after PDB: 1H6G​
Identifiers
Symbol	CTNNA1
Entrez	1495
HUGO	2509
OMIM	116805
RefSeq	NM_001903
UniProt	P35221
Other data
Locus	Chr. 5 q31.2

catenin (cadherin-associated protein), alpha 2
Identifiers
Symbol	CTNNA2
Entrez	1496
HUGO	2510
OMIM	114025
RefSeq	NM_004389
UniProt	P26232
Other data
Locus	Chr. 2 p12-p11.1

catenin (cadherin-associated protein), alpha 3
Identifiers
Symbol	CTNNA3
Entrez	29119
HUGO	2511
OMIM	607667
RefSeq	NM_013266
UniProt	Q9UI47
Other data
Locus	Chr. 10 q21

Alpha-catenin was suggested to function as a linking protein between cadherins and actin-containing filaments of the cytoskeleton. It has been reported that the actin binding proteins vinculin and alpha-actinin can bind to alpha-catenin. However, a protein complex including a cadherin, actin, beta-catenin and alpha-catenin has not been isolated. It has been suggested that alpha-catenin does not bind with high affinity to both actin filaments and the E-cadherin-beta-catenin complex at the same time. It has been observed that when alpha-catenin is not in a molecular complex with beta-catenin, it dimerizes and functions to regulate actin filament assembly, possibly by competing with Arp2/3 protein.

The amino acid sequence of alpha-catenin has sequence similarity to that of vinculin.

Types

There are three human alpha-catenin genes:

• alpha-1-catenin (also called alpha-E-catenin)
• alpha-2-catenin (also called alpha-N-catenin)
• alpha-3-catenin (also called alpha-T-catenin)

See also

• Catenin

External links

• alpha Catenin at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)