Anti-NEAS/SPTAN1 Antibody Picoband® Fluoro488 Conjugated

Alpha II-spectrin, also known as Spectrin alpha chain, brain is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SPTAN1 gene. Spectrins are a family of filamentous cytoskeletal proteins that function as essential scaffold proteins that stabilize the plasma membrane and organize intracellular organelles. Spectrins are composed of alpha and beta dimers that associate to form tetramers linked in a head-to-head arrangement. This gene encodes an alpha spectrin that is specifically expressed in nonerythrocytic cells. The encoded protein has been implicated in other cellular functions including DNA repair and cell cycle regulation. Mutations in this gene are the cause of early infantile epileptic encephalopathy-5. Alternate splicing results in multiple transcript variants.

AF4/FMR2 family member 4; ALL1-fused gene from chromosome 5q31 protein; Protein AF-5q31; Major CDK9 elongation factor-associated protein; AFF4; AF5Q31, MCEF; HSPC092

Key component of the super elongation complex (SEC), a complex required to increase the catalytic rate of RNA polymerase II transcription by suppressing transient pausing by the polymerase at multiple sites along the DNA. In the SEC complex, AFF4 acts as a central scaffold that recruits other factors through interactions with ELL proteins (ELL, ELL2 or ELL3) and the P-TEFb complex. In case of infection by HIV-1 virus, the SEC complex is recruited by the viral Tat protein to stimulate viral gene expression. .

1. Barton, D. E., Yang-Feng, T. L., Leto, T., Marchesi, V., Francke, U. NEAS encoding a non-erythroid alpha-spectrin is on chromosome 9, region q33-q34 and on mouse chromosome 2. (Abstract) Cytogenet. Cell Genet. 46: 578, 1987. 2. Birkenmeier, C. S., McFarland-Starr, E. C., Barker, J. E. Chromosomal location of three spectrin genes: relationship to the inherited hemolytic anemias of mouse and man. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 85: 8121-8125, 1988. 3. Cianci, C. D., Zhang, Z., Pradhan, D., Morrow, J. S. Brain and muscle express a unique alternative transcript of alpha-II spectrin. Biochemistry 38: 15721-15730, 1999.