Sterile Alpha Motif Domain Containing Protein 12 (SaMD12)

The sterile alpha motif (SAM) domain is a 70 residue structure found in a large number of proteins involved in diverse processes present throughout the eukaryotes. The SAM domain is known to bind RNA and is arranged in a small five-helix bundle with two large interfaces. SAMD12 is a 201 amino acid protein encoded by the SAMD12 gene which maps to human chromosome 8. Consisting of nearly 146 million base pairs, chromosome 8 encodes over 800 genes and is associated with a variety of diseases and malignancies. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Trisomy 8, Pfeiffer syndrome, congenital hypothyroidism, Waardenburg syndrome and some leukemias and lymphomas are thought to occur as a result of defects in specific genes that maps to chromosome 8.