Tubulin Folding Cofactor D (TBCD)

Cofactor D is one of four proteins involved in the pathway leading to correctly folded beta-tubulin from folding intermediates. Cofactors A and D are believed to play a role in capturing and stabilizing beta-tubulin intermediates in a quasi-native confirmation.The deduced 1,192-amino acid full-length TBCD protein shares 80.5% amino acid sequence identity with bovine tubulin-folding cofactor D across 1,188 amino acids. RT-PCR followed by ELISA detected TBCD expression at varying levels in all human tissues examined, namely brain, spinal cord, liver, pancreas, kidney, spleen, heart, lung, skeletal muscle, testis, ovary, fetal brain, and fetal liver. Within the brain, TBCD expression was found in all regions tested, namely amygdala, corpus callosum, cerebellum, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, substantia nigra, subthalamic nucleus, and thalamus.