ADD3 Antibody

Background:

Adducins are heteromeric proteins composed of differentsubunits referred to as adducin alpha, beta and gamma. The threesubunits are encoded by distinct genes and belong to a family ofmembrane skeletal proteins involved in the assembly ofspectrin-actin network in erythrocytes and at sites of cell-cellcontact in epithelial tissues. While adducins alpha and gamma areubiquitously expressed, the expression of adducin beta isrestricted to brain and hematopoietic tissues. Adducin, originallypurified from human erythrocytes, was found to be a heterodimer ofadducins alpha and beta. Polymorphisms resulting in amino acidsubstitutions in these two subunits have been associated with theregulation of blood pressure in an animal model of hypertension.Heterodimers consisting of alpha and gamma subunits have also beendescribed. Structurally, each subunit is comprised of two distinctdomains. The amino-terminal region is protease resistant andglobular in shape, while the carboxy-terminal region is proteasesensitive. The latter contains multiple phosphorylation sites forprotein kinase C, the binding site for calmodulin, and is requiredfor association with spectrin and actin. Alternatively splicedadducin gamma transcripts encoding different isoforms have beendescribed. The functions of the different isoforms are not known.