Characterization of the intronic portion of cadherin superfamily members, common cancer orchestrators.

ABSTRACT: Cadherins are cell-cell adhesion proteins essential for the maintenance of tissue architecture and integrity, and their impairment is often associated with human cancer. Knowledge regarding regulatory mechanisms associated with cadherin misexpression in cancer is scarce. Specific features of the intronic-structure and intronic-based regulatory mechanisms in the cadherin superfamily are unidentified. This study aims at systematically characterizing the intronic portion of cadherin superfamily members and the identification of intronic regions constituting putative targets/triggers of regulation, using a bioinformatic approach and biological data mining. Our study demonstrates that the cadherin superfamily genes harbour specific characteristics in comparison to all non-cadherin genes, both f

SUBMITTER: Oliveira P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3400724 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature