Keratin 80 (KRT80)

Keratins, such as KRT80, are filament proteins that make up one of the major structural fibers of epithelial cells . Using database analysis to identify keratin genes within the type II keratin gene domain on chromosome 12, Rogers et al. (2005) identified KRT80, which they called KB20. The deduced 452-amino acid protein has a calculated molecular mass of 50.5 kD. Like other type II keratins, KB20 has N- and C-terminal domains and a central rod domain consisting of 4 alpha-helical regions separated by 3 nonhelical linker sequences. Northern blot analysis detected weak expression of a 3.5-kb KB20 transcript in tongue, but not skin or in any other tissues or organs examined.By genomic sequence analysis, Rogers et al. (2005) mapped the KRT80 gene to chromosome 12q13.13.