Gene of the day

PTPRK Gene. Entrez GeneID of this gene is 5796. Its authoritative full name is protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type, K. The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) family. PTPs are known to be signaling molecules that regulate a variety of cellular processes including cell growth, differentiation, mitotic cycle, and oncogenic transformation. This PTP possesses an extracellular region, a single transmembrane region, and two tandem catalytic domains, and thus represents a receptor-type PTP. The extracellular region contains a meprin-A5 antigen-PTP mu (MAM) domain, an Ig-like domain and four fibronectin type III-like repeats. This PTP was shown to mediate homophilic intercellular interaction, possibly through the interaction with beta- and gamma-catenin at adherens junctions. Expression of this gene was found to be stimulated by TGF-beta 1, which may be important for the inhibition of keratinocyte proliferation. [provided by RefSeq]