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EntityQ24724230· pop 12· linked from 119 articles

Also known as IPR001612, Caveolin

In molecular biology, caveolins are a family of integral membrane proteins that are the principal components of caveolae membranes and involved in receptor-independent endocytosis. Caveolins may act as scaffolding proteins within caveolar membranes by compartmentalizing and concentrating signaling molecules. They also induce positive (inward) membrane curvature by way of oligomerization, and hairpin insertion. Various classes of signaling molecules, including G-protein subunits, receptor and non-receptor tyrosine kinases, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and small GTPases, bind Cav-1

Key facts

Protein family.Symbol
Caveolin
Protein family.Name
Caveolin
Protein family.Pfam
PF01146
Protein family.InterPro
IPR001612
Protein family.PROSITE
PDOC00930
Protein.Name
Caveolin 3
Protein.HGNCid
1529
Protein.Symbol
CAV2
Protein.AltSymbols
CAV
Protein.EntrezGene
858
Protein.OMIM
601048
Protein.RefSeq
NM_001233
Protein.UniProt
P51636
Protein.Chromosome
7
Protein.Arm
q
Protein.Band
31

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

9,681 papers

via PubMed

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

8 sections
Contents
  • Structure and expression
  • Function
  • Role in disease
  • Cancer
  • Cardiovascular diseases
  • Muscular dystrophy
  • References
  • External links

In molecular biology, caveolins are a family of integral membrane proteins that are the principal components of caveolae membranes and involved in receptor-independent endocytosis. Caveolins may act as scaffolding proteins within caveolar membranes by compartmentalizing and concentrating signaling molecules. They also induce positive (inward) membrane curvature by way of oligomerization, and hairpin insertion. Various classes of signaling molecules, including G-protein subunits, receptor and non-receptor tyrosine kinases, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and small GTPases, bind Cav-1 through its 'caveolin-scaffolding domain'.

The caveolin gene family has three members in vertebrates: CAV1, CAV2, and CAV3, coding for the proteins caveolin-1, caveolin-2, and caveolin-3, respectively. All three members are membrane proteins with similar structure. Caveolin forms oligomers and associates with cholesterol and sphingolipids in certain areas of the cell membrane, leading to the formation of caveolae.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “caveolins” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.