Discovery of a MUC3B gene reconstructs the membrane mucin gene cluster on human chromosome 7.

ABSTRACT: Human tissue surfaces are coated with mucins, a family of macromolecular sugar-laden proteins serving diverse functions from lubrication to the formation of selective biochemical barriers against harmful microorganisms and molecules. Membrane mucins are a distinct group of mucins that are attached to epithelial cell surfaces where they create a dense glycocalyx facing the extracellular environment. All mucin proteins carry long stretches of tandemly repeated sequences that undergo extensive O-linked glycosylation to form linear mucin domains. However, the repetitive nature of mucin domains makes them prone to recombination and renders their genetic sequences particularly difficult to read with standard sequencing technologies. As a result, human mucin genes suffer from significant sequence

SUBMITTER: Lang T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9578598 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature