Identity

Crystallins are a highly conserved protein family consisting of three classes, alpha, beta and gamma. The alpha crystallins are divided into two groups according to their acidic as well as basic character, namely A and B. The genes encoding the alpha crystallins A and B are located at chromosome 11 and 21, respectively. The hamster alpha-B crystallin (CRYAB) gene, which is highly homologous to that of humans, was cloned at first by Quax-Jeuken and it was demonstrated that the coding region of CRYAB consists of three exons (Quax-Jeuken et al., 1985). Transcription CRYAB was primarily found to be expressed in the lens. At the mRNA level Dubin and his group were the first to detect CRYAB expression in several other tissues such as the lung, heart, skeletal muscle, kidney and to a lower extent within the brain and spleen (Dubin et al., 1989). Protei