Gap Junction Protein Beta 7 (GJb7)

Connexins, such as GJB7, are involved in the formation of gap junctions, intercellular conduits that directly connect the cytoplasms of contacting cells. Each gap junction channel is formed by docking of 2 hemichannels, each of which contains 6 connexin subunits.By database analysis and PCR of human genomic DNA, Sohl et al. (2003) cloned GJB7, which they called CX25. Northern blot analysis detected weak expression of a 2.7-kb CX25 transcript in placenta only. Sohl et al. (2003) stated that there is no ortholog of CX25 in mouse.Hartz (2008) mapped the GJB7 gene to chromosome 6q15 based on an alignment of the GJB7 sequence with the genomic sequence (build 36.1).