Lin-7 Homolog B (LIN7B)

Rat Lin7b was expressed specifically in brain. Sucrose gradient centrifugation showed enrichment of Mals proteins in rat cerebral cortex synaptosomes. Mals2 had an apparent molecular mass of 25 kD by Western blot analysis.The deduced 207-amino acid Veli2 protein has a C-terminal PDZ domain. Western blot analysis detected Veli2 in all rat tissues examined, with highest expression in brain.The Mals proteins were predominantly expressed in both neuronal cell bodies and neuropil, and they were not detected in most nonneuronal cells in brain.Lin7 proteins colocalized with a tight junction marker at cell-cell contacts in canine kidney cells, in perinuclear and marginal regions and with stress fibers in rat fibroblasts, and throughout the cytoplasm and enriched at the neurite tip in a mouse neuroblastoma cell line.