Metallothionein 2 (MT2)

Metallothionein (MT) is a family of cysteine-rich, low molecular weight (MW ranging from 3500 to 14000 Da) proteins. MTs have the capacity to bind both physiological (such as zinc, copper, selenium) and xenobiotic (such as cadmium, mercury, silver, arsenic) heavy metals through the thiol group of its cysteine residues, which represents nearly the 30% of its amino acidic residues.Karin and Richards (1982) cloned a human MT-II gene and determined the sequence of the mRNA. It showed a GC-rich sequence; 79% of codons had G or C residues at the third position.

Bates and Mulley (1988) identified a BamHI RFLP at the MT2A locus. This locus was assigned to 16q21 by in situ hybridization to chromosomes expressing FRA16B and FRA16C, 2 fragile sites on chromosome 16.