Small Muscle Protein, X-Linked (SMPX)

A wide range of techniques, including differential display, the 2-hybrid system, exon trapping, and reciprocal probing, have been applied to isolate human genes for basic functional analysis or as candidates for genetic disorders. In more recent times, large scale sequencing of both the human genome and a growing number of EST libraries has provided tools to improve gene identification.The orthologous mouse and rat Smpx genes could be aligned and confirmed by complete sequencing of additional SMPX-related clones obtained by library screening. The human and rodent SMPX genes encode proteins of 88 to 86 and 85 amino acids, respectively. The authors found that the SMPX gene consists of 5 exons and 4 introns, comprising together 52.1 kb. SMPX is preferentially and abundantly expressed in heart and skeletal muscle.