CLDN3 Human Recombinant Protein

Tight junctions represent one mode of cell-to-cell adhesion in epithelial or endothelial cell sheets, forming continuous seals around cells and serving as a physical barrier to prevent solutes and water from passing freely through the paracellular space. These junctions are comprised of sets of continuous networking strands in the outwardly facing cytoplasmic leaflet, with complementary grooves in the inwardly facing extracytoplasmic leaflet. The protein encoded by this intronless gene, a member of the claudin family, is an integral membrane protein and a component of tight junction strands. It is also a low-affinity receptor for Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin, and shares aa sequence similarity with a putative apoptosis-related protein found in rat. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

Claudin-3: Plays a major role in tight junction-specific obliteration of the intercellular space, through calcium- independent cell-adhesion activity. CLDN3 is located in the Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) critical region. WBS results from a hemizygous deletion of several genes on chromosome 7q11.23, thought to arise as a consequence of unequal crossing over between highly homologous low-copy repeat sequences flanking the deleted region. Belongs to the claudin family.

Protein type: Cytoskeletal; Membrane protein, multi-pass; Membrane protein, integral

Chromosomal Location of Human Ortholog: 7q11.23

Cellular Component: tight junction; integral to plasma membrane; integral to membrane; lateral plasma membrane

Molecular Function: identical protein binding; transmembrane receptor activity; structural molecule activity

Biological Process: response to hypoxia; signal transduction; calcium-independent cell-cell adhesion