Prothymosin Alpha (PTMa)

Prothymosin alpha is a protein encoded by the PTMA. PTMA is a small, 12.4 kDa protein. It is a 109-111 amino acid long polypeptide as the precursor of thymosin alpha-1. The encoded human PTMA protein is a highly acidic (54 residues out of 111) and shared over 90% sequence homology with rat PTMA. The primary structure of PTMA is highly conserved and shows a number of important features. The first 28 amino acids of its sequence correspond to those of thymosin-alpha-1. It has a central acidic region (residues 41-85) comprising of glutamic and aspartic residues. Neither type of secondary structure has been detected. Thymosin-alpha-1 appeared at positions 2-29 of the PTMA.PTMA has been shown to serve essential biological functions.