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EF-hand, calcium binding motif, found in the hexa-EF hand proteins family The hexa-EF hand proteins family, also named the calbindin sub-family, contains a group of six EF-hand Ca2+-binding proteins, including calretinin (CR, also termed 29 kDa calbindin), calbindin D28K (CB, also termed vitamin D-dependent calcium-binding protein, avian-type), and secretagogin (SCGN). CR is a cytosolic hexa-EF-hand calcium-binding protein predominantly expressed in a variety of normal and tumorigenic t-specific neurons of the central and peripheral nervous system. It is a multifunctional protein implicated in many biological processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, and cell death. CB is highly expressed in brain tissue. It is a strong calcium-binding and buffering protein responsible for preventing a neuronal death as well as maintaining and controlling calcium homeostasis. SCGN is a six EF-hand calcium-binding protein expressed in neuroendocrine, pancreatic endocrine and retinal cells. It plays a crucial role in cell apoptosis, receptor signaling and differentiation. It is also involved in vesicle secretion through binding to various proteins, including interacts with SNAP25, SNAP23, DOC2alpha, ARFGAP2, rootletin, KIF5B, beta-tubulin, DDAH-2, ATP-synthase and myeloid leukemia factor 2. SCGN functions as a Ca2+ sensor/coincidence detector modulating vesicular exocytosis of neurotransmitters, neuropeptides or hormones. Although the family members share a significant amount of secondary sequence homology, they display altered structural and biochemical characteristics, and operate in distinct fashions. CB contains six EF-hand motifs in a single globular domain, where EF-hands 1, 3, 4, 5 bind four calcium ions. CR contains six EF-hand motifs within two independent domains, CR I-II and CR III-VI. They harbor two and four EF-hand motifs, respectively. The first 5 EF-hand motifs are capable of binding calcium ions, while the EF-hand 6 is inactive. SCGN consists of the three globular domains each of which contains a pair of EF-hand motifs. Human SCGN simultaneously binds four calcium ions through its EF-hands 3, 4, 5 and 6 in one high affinity and three low affinity calcium-binding sites. In contrast, SCGNs in other lower eukaryotes, such as D. rerio, X. laevis, M. domestica, G. gallus, O. anatinus, are fully competent in terms of six calcium-binding. |
Jiyao W et al.(2023). "The conserved domain database in 2023.",