TableEdit

Casey, JR, Petranka, JG, Kottra, J, Fleenor, DE and Rosse, WF (1994) The structure of the urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor gene. Blood 84:1151-6

The cellular receptor for urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPAR) is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored membrane protein that plays a central role in pericellular plasminogen activation. It contains 313 amino acid residues, including 28 cysteine residues in a pattern of three homologous repeats. The cysteine residue pattern suggests that uPAR belongs to a superfamily of proteins including CD59, murine Ly-6, and a variety of elapid snake venom toxins. A novel 1.7-kb uPAR cDNA was isolated that is missing exon 5 and that contains 380 bp not previously reported at the 5' end. This cDNA was used to probe a human genomic library from which three clones were isolated and analyzed. The uPAR gene consists of 7 exons spread over 23 kb of genomic DNA. Exons 2, 4, and 6 code for homologous domains within the mature protein, as do exons 3, 5, and 7; CD59-like homologous pairs are encoded by exons 2-3, 4-5, and 6-7, respectively. The structure of the gene for uPAR further confirms the relationship of this molecule to the superfamily containing CD59, Ly-6, and the elapid snake venom toxins.

PubMed

Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Base Sequence; DNA Primers; Erabutoxins/genetics; Exons; Genomic Library; Glycosylphosphatidylinositols/metabolism; HeLa Cells; Humans; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Multigene Family; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Receptors, Cell Surface/genetics; Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Snakes; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator/metabolism