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Growth Differentiation Factor-7 (GDF-7) belongs to the BMP family of TGF-b superfamily proteins. GDF7 elicits its bioactivity via a heterodimeric receptor complex comprised of a type 1 (BMPR-IB) and a type II (BMPR-II or Activin RII) serine/threonine kinase receptor. GDF7 signaling results in the phosphorylation and activation of Smad proteins. GDF-7 is also involved in tendon and ligament formation and repair. In addition, GDF7 regulates bone formation, mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, neuronal differentiation, and axon guidance.

Gankyrin (proteasome 26S subunit) is a multicatalytic proteinase oncoprotein commonly overexpressed in most hepatocellular carcinomas. Proteasomes are found throughout eukaryotic cells at a high concentrations and cleave peptides in an ATP/ubiquitin-dependent process in a non-lysosomal pathway. Gankyrin interacts with S6 ATPase of the 19S regulatory particle of the 26S proteasome. Gankyrin is involved in theregulation of the phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma protein by CDK4, and to enhance the ubiquitinylation of p53 by MDM2. Gankyrin consists of 7 ankyrin repeats and is structurally similar to I kappa Bs. Gankyrin acts as a regulatory subunit of the 26s proteasome which is involved in the atp-dependent degradation of ubiquitinated proteins. Gankyrin is involved in progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. gankyrin plays an oncogenic role especially in early stages of human epatocarcinogenesis. Gankyrin binds to NF-kappaB and suppresses its activity at the transcription level by modulating acetylation through SIRT1. Structural comparison between Gankyrin & p16(INK4A) identified numerous residues of gankyrin that are potentially important for CDK4 binding.

Growth Differentiation Factor-7 (GDF-7) belongs to the BMP family of TGF-b superfamily proteins. GDF7 elicits its bioactivity via a heterodimeric receptor complex comprised of a type 1 (BMPR-IB) and a type II (BMPR-II or Activin RII) serine/threonine kinase receptor. GDF7 signaling results in the phosphorylation and activation of Smad proteins. GDF-7 is also involved in tendon and ligament formation and repair. In addition, GDF7 regulates bone formation, mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, neuronal differentiation, and axon guidance.

SDF-1 (stromal cell-derived factor-1) is small cytokine belonging to the chemokine family that is officially designated Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 12 (CXCL12). It is produced in two forms, SDF-1?/CXCL12a and SDF-1?/CXCL12b, by alternate splicing of the same gene. Chemokines are characterized by the presence of four conserved cysteines, which form two disulfide bonds. The CXCL12 proteins belong to the group of CXC chemokines, whose initial pair of cysteines are separated by one intervening amino acid. CXCL12 is strongly chemotactic for lymphocytes and has been implicated as an important cell co-ordinator during development. During embryogenesis it directs the migration of hematopoietic cells from foetal liver to bone marrow. Mice which were knocked-out for CXCL12 gene were lethal before the birth or within just 1 hour of life. As another role, CXCL12a alters also the electrophysiology of neurons. CXCL12 was shown to be expressend in many tissues in mice (including brain, thymus, heart, lung, liver, kidney, spleen and bone marrow).
The receptor for this chemokine is CXCR4, which was previously called fusin. This CXCL12-CXCR4 interaction used to be considered exclusive (unlike for other chemokines and their receptors), but recently it was suggested that CXCL12 is also bound by CXCR7 receptor.
The gene for CXCL12 is located on human chromosome 10. In human and mouse both CXCL12 and CXCR4 show high identity of sequence: 99% and 90%, respectively.

SDF-1 (stromal cell-derived factor-1) is small cytokine belonging to the chemokine family that is officially designated Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 12 (CXCL12). It is produced in two forms, SDF-1?/CXCL12a and SDF-1?/CXCL12b, by alternate splicing of the same gene. Chemokines are characterized by the presence of four conserved cysteines, which form two disulfide bonds. The CXCL12 proteins belong to the group of CXC chemokines, whose initial pair of cysteines are separated by one intervening amino acid. CXCL12 is strongly chemotactic for lymphocytes and has been implicated as an important cell co-ordinator during development. During embryogenesis it directs the migration of hematopoietic cells from foetal liver to bone marrow. Mice which were knocked-out for CXCL12 gene were lethal before the birth or within just 1 hour of life. As another role, CXCL12a alters also the electrophysiology of neurons. CXCL12 was shown to be expressend in many tissues in mice (including brain, thymus, heart, lung, liver, kidney, spleen and bone marrow).
The receptor for this chemokine is CXCR4, which was previously called fusin. This CXCL12-CXCR4 interaction used to be considered exclusive (unlike for other chemokines and their receptors), but recently it was suggested that CXCL12 is also bound by CXCR7 receptor.
The gene for CXCL12 is located on human chromosome 10. In human and mouse both CXCL12 and CXCR4 show high identity of sequence: 99% and 90%, respectively.

Cathepsin-A (CTSA) is a protective protein which is crucial for both the activity of beta-galactosidase and neuraminidase, CTSA associates with these enzymes and exerts a protective function required for their stability and activity. The CTSA protein is also a carboxypeptidase and can deamidate tachykinins. CTSA is a component of the lysosomal multienzyme complex along with beta-galactosidase and sialidase Neu1. CTSA is a multicatalytic enzyme with deamidase and esterase in addition to carboxypeptidase activities.

SDCBP2 has two class II PDZ domains. PDZ domains assist protein-protein interactions by attaching to the cytoplasmic C-terminus of transmembrane proteins, and PDZ-containing proteins mediate cell signaling and the organization of protein complexes. SDCBP2 attaches to phosphatidylinositol 4, 5-bisphosphate (PIP2) and take part in nuclear PIP2 arrangement and cell division.

Death effector domain-containing protein (DEDD) is a cytoplasmic protein. The cell death activity of DEDD relates to its nuclear localization. DEDD translocates to the nucleus during CD95-mediated apoptosis, there it localizes to nucleoli-like structures, activates caspase-6 and particularly inhibits RNA polymerase I-dependent transcription. DEDD is usually expressed in a variety of tissues, and found in the highest levels in the testis. Overexpression of DEDD was shown to induce weak apoptosis.

Methionine sulfoxide reductase B1 (SEPX1 or MSRB1), is a selenoprotein that contains a selenocysteine (Sec) residue at its active site. The selenocysteine is encoded by the UGA codon that usually signals translation termination. SEPX1 is a member of the methionine sulfoxide reductase B (MsrB) family, and is expressed in an assortment of adult and fetal tissues. MSRs (Methionine sulfoxide reductases) catalyze the reduction of free and protein-bound methionine sulfoxides to corresponding methionines. The oxidation of methionine by ROS creates a diastereomeric mixture of methionine-S-sulfoxide (Met-S-SO) and methionine-R-sulfoxide (Met-R-SO). Two separate enzyme families evolved for reduction of these sulfoxides, with methionine-S-sulfoxide reductase (MsrA) being stereospecific for Met-S-SO and methionine-R-sulfoxide reductase (MsrB) for Met-R-SO.

Developmental pluripotency-associated 5 proteins (DPPA5) is a 116 amino acid protein, which localizes to the cytoplasm and contains one KH domain. DPPA5 is expressed in embryonic germ (EG), primordial germ (PG) and embryonic stem (ES) cells. DPPA5 has an imperative role in the maintenance of ES cell pluripotency and may be essential for proper embryogenesis.

Developmentally-regulated GTP-binding protein 1 (DRG1) is a member of the GTP1/OBG family. DRG1 has a role in cell proliferation and differentiation, as well as in apoptosis, proposing a role in tumor formation and metastasis. Expression of the DRG1 was considerably reduced in breast tumor cells, particularly in patients with lymph node or bone metastasis as compared to those with localized breast cancer. The DRG1 protein is expressed at high levels in the heart, kidney and skeletal muscle and at lower levels in the brain, liver, placenta, lung, colon and spleen.

KH homology domain containing 1-like, also known as KHDC1L is a member of the KHDC1 family.KHDC1L is a protein-coding gene; an important paralog of this gene is KHDC1.

Thioredoxins are small disulphide-containing redox proteins (within the conserved Cys-Gly-Pro-Cys active site) that have been found in all the kingdoms of living organisms. Thioredoxin contains a single disulfide active site and serves as a general protein disulphide oxidoreductase. Thioredoxins are involved in the first unique step in DNA synthesis. It interacts with a broad range of proteins by a redox mechanism based on reversible oxidation of two cysteine thiol groups to a disulphide, accompanied by the transfer of two electrons and two protons. The net result is the covalent interconversion of a disulphide and a dithiol. Trx also provides control over a number of transcription factors affecting cell proliferation and death through a mechanism referred to as redox regulation. It has been suggested that thioredoxin may catalyze the formation of correct disulfides during protein folding because of its ability to act as an efficient oxidoreductant. This could be especially useful in

VEGF-C, also known as Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Related Protein (VRP), is a recently discovered VEGF growth factor family member that is most closely related to VEGF-D. The rat VEGFC cDNA encodes a pre-pro-protein of 416 amino acids residues.
It is almost identical to the mouse VEGF-C protein. Similar to VEGF-D, VEGF-C has a VEGF homology domain spanning the middle third of the precursor molecule and long N- and C-terminal extensions. In adults, VEGF-C is highly expressed in heart, placenta, ovary and small intestine. Recombinant rat VEGF-C, lacking the N- and C-terminal extensions and containing only the middle VEGF homology domain, forms primarily non-covalently linked dimers. This protein is a ligand for both VEGFR-2/KDR and VEGFR-3/FLT -4. Since VEGFR-3 is strongly expressed in lymphatic endothelial cells, it has been postulated that VEGF-C is involved in the regulation of the growth and/or differentiation of lymphatic endothelium. Although recombinant rat VEGF-C is also a mitogen for vascular endothelial cells, it is much less potent than VEGF-A.

WHSC2 (NELF-A) is a protein factor required for DRB-sensitive transcription. WHSC2 is one of the 5 components of the multisubunit NELF complex which cooperates with DSIF to repress RNA polymerase II elongation. The Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome is a multiple malformation syndrome characterized by mental and developmental defects resulting from a hemizygous deletion of the distal short arm of chromosome 4 (4p16.3).

RPL23A is a ribosomal protein which is a component of the 60S subunit. Ribosomes, the organelles which catalyze protein synthesis, consist of a small 40S subunit and a large 60S subunit. Together these subunits are composed of 4 RNA species and approximately 80 structurally different proteins. RPL23A is a member of the L23P family of ribosomal proteins. It is located in the cytoplasm. Recombinant Human Ribosomal Protein L23A may be one of the target molecules involved in mediating growth inhibition. The corresponding protein binds to a specific site on the 26S rRNA in yeast.

R-spondin-3 (RSPO3) belongs to the thrombospondin type 1 repeat supergene family. RSPO3 is a secreted protein which is widely expressed in many tissues. RSPO3 contains 2 Furin-like repeats which have been found in various eukaryotic proteins involved in the mechanism of signal transduction by receptor tyrosine kinases, and one TSP type-1 domain. RSPO3 acts as an activator of the beta-catenin signaling cascade, initiating TCF-dependent gene activation.

CUE Domain Containing 2 also known as CUEDC2 is a part of the CUEDC2 family and contains 1 CUE domain. CUEDC2 down-regulates ESR1 protein levels through the ubiquitination-proteasome pathway and controls PGR protein levels through a parallel mechanism.

Mitochondrial Ribosomal Protein L1 (MRPL1) exists as a component of the 39S ribosomal subunit and operates in conjunction with other MRPs to mediate protein synthesis. Mitochondrial ribosomes consist of a large 39S subunit and a small 28S subunit, both of which are consist of multiple mitochondrial ribosomal proteins (MRPs) that are encoded by nuclear genes and are vital for protein synthesis within mitochondria. MRPL1 exists as 2 isoforms produced by alternative splicing. Isoform 1 of MRPL1 is ubiquitously expressed while isoform 2 is particularly expressed in heart.

SCG3 belongs to the chromogranin/secretogranin family of neuroendocrine secretory proteins. Though, the function of SCG3 is unknown, Granins operate as precursors for biologically active peptides. Several granins are known to serve as helper proteins in sorting and proteolytic processing of prohormones.

Cytohesin 1 also known as CYTH1 belongs to the PSCD family. CYTH1 is responsible for promoting guanine-nucleotide exchange on ARF1 and ARF5 and also promotes the activation of ARF factors by the replacement of GDP with GTP.

DDIT3 reduces DNA-binding activity of C/EBP and lap by forming heterodimers which don’t bind DNA. DDIT3, also known as GADD153, is a basic domain-leucine zipper(bZIP) transcription factor of C/EBP family. DDIT3 protein is up-regulated by several stresses, such as amino acid or glucose starvation, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, osmotic stress and hypoxia. DDIT3 protein is invloved in ER stress-mediated apoptosis and in disease including diabetes, brain ischemia and neurodegenerative disease. DDIT3 plays a role in asoprisnil-induced apoptosis. Hypoglycaemia-induced necrotic cell death of neuroblastoma cells is an active process mediated via the induction of the transcription factor DDIT3. DDIT3 plays an important role in melanoma progression. HRG stimulation of mammary epithelial cells induces the expression of DDIT3 mRNA and protein and transcription of DDIT3 promoter.

DDX39A which is a part of the DEAD box protein family is characterized by the conserved motif Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp. This pattern is implicated in a various cellular processes involving alteration of RNA secondary structure, nuclear and mitochondrial splicing, and ribosome and spliceosome assembly. Several members of the DEAD box protein family are taking part in embryogenesis, spermatogenesis, and cellular growth and division.