Friday, March 2, 2012 at 12:44PM
Drew Wolfe

Dystrophin

"Dystrophin is a rod-shaped cytoplasmic protein, and a vital part of a protein complex that connects the cytoskeleton of a muscle fiber to the surrounding extracellular matrix through the cell membrane. This complex is variously known as the costamere or the dystrophin-associated protein complex. Many muscle proteins, such as α-dystrobrevin, syncoilin, synemin, sarcoglycan, dystroglycan, and sarcospan, colocalize with dystrophin at the costamere."

"The Dystrophin gene is one of the longest human genes known, covering 2.2 megabases (0.07% of the human genome) at locus Xp21. The primary transcript measures about 2,400 kilobases and takes 16 hours to transcribe[1]; the mature mRNA measures 14.0 kilobases.[2] The 79 exons[3] code for a protein of over 3500 amino acid residues."

Article originally appeared on WorldWideWolfe II (http://drewhwolfe.com/).
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