Eyeing the Cyr61/CTGF/NOV (CCN) group of genes in development and diseases: highlights of their structural likenesses and functional dissimilarities.

ABSTRACT: "CCN" is an acronym referring to the first letter of each of the first three members of this original group of mammalian functionally and phylogenetically distinct extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins [i.e., cysteine-rich 61 (CYR61), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), and nephroblastoma-overexpressed (NOV)]. Although "CCN" genes are unlikely to have arisen from a common ancestral gene, their encoded proteins share multimodular structures in which most cysteine residues are strictly conserved in their positions within several structural motifs. The CCN genes can be subdivided into members developmentally indispensable for embryonic viability (e.g., CCN1, 2 and 5), each assuming unique tissue-specific functions, and members not essential for embryonic development (e.g., CCN3, 4 and 6), p

SUBMITTER: Krupska I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4579636 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature