Calpain 13 (CAPN13)

Calpains are a family of cytosolic calcium-activated cysteine proteases involved in a variety of cellular processes including apoptosis, cell division, modulation of integrin-cytoskeletal interactions, and synaptic plasticity . CAPN13 belongs to the calpain large subunit family.Low levels of CAPN13 expression were detected only in human lung and testis. The deduced 557-amino acid protein has a predicted molecular mass of 63.6 kD and contains the cysteine protease domain typical of calpain large subunit proteins but lacks the calmodulin-like domain IV. CAPN13 shares 37.9% homology with and was most closely related to CAPN14.The CAPN13 and CAPN14 genes are transcriptionally oriented in the same direction, and the last predicted exon of CAPN13 lies approximately 447 kb upstream of the first predicted exon of CAPN14.