Bicaudal D Homolog 1 (BICD1)

BICD1 is one of two human homologs of Drosophila bicaudal-D. It has been implicated in COPI-independent membrane transport from the Golgi apparatus to the endoplasmic reticulum. Two alternative splice variants have been described. Other alternative splice variants that encode different protein isoforms have been described but their full-length nature has not been determined.predicted amino acid sequence similarity of the BICD1 cDNA was limited essentially to the amphipatic helices and the leucine zipper, but the conserved order of these domains suggested a function of the protein in mammals similar to that in Drosophila. A database search further indicated the existence of a second human homolog on 9q and a Caenorhabditis elegans homolog.