Biosynthesis of frog skin mucins: cysteine-rich shuffled modules, polydispersities and genetic polymorphism

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewResearchpeer-review

1. Frog integumentary mucins (FIM-A.1, FIM-B.1 and FIM-C.1) consist of typical threonine-rich highly O-glycosylated (semi)repetitive domains, and cysteine-rich modules, i.e. the P-domain, the short consensus repeat and a region with high similarity to the C-terminal end of von Willebrand factor (designated here CC29-motif). 2. These modules are thought to be involved in protein-protein interactions and they have been observed in a variety of extracellular proteins. In FIMs, these modules may be involved in oligomerization processes leading to an entangled mucin network. 3. Polydispersities have been detected in FIM-B.1 and FIM-C.1 within single individuals. Multiple transcripts are probably generated by alternative splicing of a huge array of different (semi)repetitive cassettes encoding the threonine-rich domains. 4. Furthermore, genetic polymorphism is observed between different individuals, probably due to allelic variations in the number of (semi)repetitive cassettes.

Original languageEnglish
JournalComparative biochemistry and physiology. B, Comparative biochemistry
Volume105
Issue number3-4
Pages (from-to)465-72
Number of pages8
ISSN0305-0491
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1993

    Research areas

  • Alleles, Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Cysteine/analysis, Glycosylation, Molecular Sequence Data, Mucins/biosynthesis, Polymorphism, Genetic, Skin/metabolism, Xenopus laevis/metabolism

ID: 347885946