Kallikrein 13 (KLK13)

Kallikrein-13 is one of the fifteen kallikrein subfamily members located in a cluster on chromosome 19. Expression of this gene is regulated by steroid hormones and may be useful as a marker for breast cancer. An additional transcript variant has been identified, but its full length sequence has not been determined.in a 300-kb region on chromosome 19q13.3-q13.4, where other kallikrein genes are localized. KLK13 exists in 2 main forms: a long form that encodes a deduced 277-amino acid protein with a predicted molecular mass of 30.6 kD, and a short form, referred to as the short KLKL4 variant, that uses an upstream alternative splice donor site located in exon 3 that generates a truncated protein. The KLK13 protein shares 51% amino acid identity with KLK11 and KLK6.