Hyaluronan And Proteoglycan Link Protein 3 (HAPLN3)

HAPLN3 belongs to the hyaluronan and proteoglycan binding link protein gene family. The protein encoded by this gene may function in hyaluronic acid binding and cell adhesion. Human and mouse link proteins share 81-96% amino acid sequence identity. Two of the four link protein genes (HAPLN2 and HAPLN4) were restricted in expression to the brain/central nervous system, while one of the four genes (HAPLN3) was widely expressed. Genomic structures revealed that all four HAPLN genes were similar in exon-intron organization and were also similar in genomic organization to the 5' exons for the CSPG core protein genes. Strikingly, all four HAPLN genes were located immediately adjacent to the four CSPG core protein genes creating four pairs of CSPG-HAPLN genes within the mammalian genome.