huntingtin(prot)

Huntingtin is a protein with unknown function. Research is currently being conducted to understand more about it (for more on current research, see the current research section, for info on organisms to be used for future research, see the future research section) As we know it now, the Huntingtin gene is located on chromosome 4P16.3 (OMIM) and produces the protein this section is about. Sometimes, this gene is lengthened on the end with tri-nucleotide repeats. These repeats (C-A-G) code for glutamine, and when there are too many glutamines in the protein they stick together, forming aggregates, which are toxic to the brain, by ways we still have yet to understand. The glutamine content which indicates onset of HD is more than 37 glutamines. A normal Huntingtin protein only contains 9-36 glutamines. In an attempt to try and understand the function of this gene, I decided to blast the protein's code, and see what similar proteins come up. These related proteins should hopefully give an idea of the function, but may not necessarily be correct.

The results of a blast of the entire protein revealed no similar proteins, except for huntingtin in other organisms. Segments of the protein were equally incapable of distinguishing a function. The structure of Huntingtin is not very revealing as to it's function, further testing will be required to find out what it's normal function is.