Chloride Channel Protein Ka (CLCNKA)

CLCNKA is a member of the CLC family of voltage-gated chloride channels. The encoded protein is predicted to have 12 transmembrane domains, and requires a beta subunit called barttin to form a functional channel. It is thought to function in salt reabsorption in the kidney and potassium recycling in the inner ear. The gene is highly similar to CLCNKB, which is located 10 kb downstream from this gene. Multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.the intron-exon organization of the CLCNKA and CLCNKB genes is identical, with each channel encoded by 19 exons. Overall, the genes show 94% DNA sequence identity in exons. The 2 genes are transcribed from the same DNA strand, with CLCNKA 5-prime of CLCNKB. The 2 genes are separated by 11 kb of genomic DNA.