Type:Protein
SpeciesReactivity:H
B=Bovine;Ca=Cat;Ch=Chicken;D=Dog;EQ=Equine;GP=GuineaPig;H=Human;M=Mouse;P=Porcine;Pr=Primate;R=Rat;Rb=Rabbit;Y=Yeast;Xe=Xenopus;Ze=Zebrafish;;;;NA-NotApplicable;STP=Step-TactinProteins;AllTheGDNFfamilyofneurotrophicfactorsformsasubfamilywithintheTGF-βsuperfamily.Theseproteinsarepotentsurvivalfactorsforvariouscentralandperipheralneuronsduringdevelopmentandtheadultanimal.TheGDNFfamilymembers(GDNF,neurturin,arteminandpersephin)signalthroughmulticomponentreceptorsthatconsistoftheRetreceptortyrosinekinaseandoneoffourglycosyl-phosphatidylinositol(GPI)-linkedligand-bindingsubunits(GFRα-1-4).GFRα-1-2,-3and-4arethepreferredligand-bindingsubunitsforGDNF,neurturin,arteminandpersephin,respectively.TheRettyrosine-kinasereceptorisencodedbythec-retproto-oncogene.Mutationsoftheretgenehavebeenassociatedwithvarioushumandiseasesaffectingtissuesderivedfromtheneuralcrest,includingHirschsprung’sdisease,multipleendocrineneoplasiaMEN2AandMEN2B,andfamilialmedullarythyroidcarcinoma.HumanandmouseRetshare83%aminoacidsequencehomology(77%homologyintheextracellulardomainand93%homologyinthecytoplasmicdomain).AlthoughRetdoesnotbindGDNFligandsdirectly,theextracellulardomainofRetbindstheGDNF-GFR-αcomplexwithhighaffinityandisapotentGDNFantagoNISTinthepresenceofsolubleGFR-α.
References:1.Trupp,M.etal.,1998,Mol.Cell.Neurosci.11:47. 2.Enokido,Y.etal.,1998,Curr.Biol.8:1019. 3.Carlomagno,F.etal.,1998,Endocrinology139:3613. 4.Baloh,R.etal.,1998,Neuron21:1291-1302.
