Gap Junction Protein Beta 5 (GJb5)

Gap junctions are conduits that allow the direct cell-to-cell passage of small cytoplasmic molecules, including ions, metabolic intermediates, and second messengers, and thereby mediate intercellular metabolic and electrical communication. Gap junction channels consist of connexin protein subunits, which are encoded by a multigene family.

Richard et al. (1998) identified 2 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from the human EST database by their similarity to mouse Gjb3 and Gjb5. Richard et al. (1998) determined the cDNA sequences of the genes from which both ESTs were derived. Sequence similarity to rodent connexin genes established them as human homologs of Gjb3 and Gjb5, encoding Cx32 and Cx31.1, respectively.