Copper Transporter 2 (COPT2)

The intake, export, and intracellular compartmentalization of copper is strictly regulated. In S. cerevisiae, the CTR1, CTR2, and CTR3 genes have been identified as copper uptake genes.Zhou and Gitschier (1997) identified ESTs encoding COPT2, which they called CTR2. They obtained the full-length coding sequences of CTR2 and an alternatively spliced transcript, which they named CTR2X, by screening cDNA libraries. The predicted 143-amino acid CTR2 protein has 3 transmembrane domains, lacks obvious metal-binding motifs, and has a lower abundance of histidine and methionine residues than does CTR1, suggesting to the authors that human CTR2 is analogous to the yeast low-affinity copper uptake protein CTR2. Northern blot analysis detected a 2-kb CTR2 transcript in all human tissues and organs examined.