HGNC Approved Gene Symbol: CAPN11
Cytogenetic location: 6p21.1 Genomic coordinates (GRCh38) : 6:44,158,820-44,184,401 (from NCBI)
Calpains are a superfamily of related proteins, some of which have been shown to function as intracellular calcium-dependent cysteine proteases. Calpains consist of a variable large (80 kD) subunit and an invariant small (30 kD) subunit (CAPN4; 114170). By searching an EST database with the protein sequences of known vertebrate calpains, Dear et al. (1999) identified a calpain-11 (CAPN11) EST. The complete CAPN11 coding sequence encodes a deduced 702-amino acid protein with similarity to the large subunits of calpains. CAPN11 can be subdivided into the 4 domains typical of calpains. Domain II shows the characteristics of a protease domain and contains the cysteine, histidine, and asparagine residues that are part of the active site of cysteine proteases. Domain IV contains 5 putative calcium-binding EF-hand motifs. Dear et al. (1999) concluded that CAPN11 is likely to have protease activity and calcium-binding ability. Compared to all known calpains, CAPN11 shared the greatest sequence homology, 57.5%, with chicken mu/m calpain. Sequence homology between CAPN11 and known human calpains ranged from 54.3% with CAPN1 (114220) to 18.7% with CAPN6 (300146). Dot blot analysis of RNA from 50 different human tissues showed highest expression of CAPN11 in testis. Northern blot analysis of a variety of human tissues detected an approximately 3-kb CAPN11 transcript in testis.
By analysis of a somatic cell hybrid mapping panel, Dear et al. (1999) mapped the CAPN11 gene to chromosome 6. They localized the CAPN11 gene to 6p12 using radiation hybrid mapping.
Dear, T. N., Moller, A., Boehm, T. CAPN11: a calpain with high mRNA levels in testis and located on chromosome 6. Genomics 59: 243-247, 1999. [PubMed: 10409436] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1006/geno.1999.5859]