Mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 5 also known as SMAD5 is a
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
that in humans is encoded by the ''SMAD5''
gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...
.
SMAD5, as its name describes, is a homolog of the
Drosophila
''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species ...
gene: "
Mothers against decapentaplegic
Mothers against decapentaplegic is a protein from the SMAD family that was discovered in ''Drosophila''. During ''Drosophila'' research, it was found that a mutation in the gene in the mother repressed the gene decapentaplegic in the embryo. The ...
", based on a tradition of such unusual naming within the gene research community.
"Sonic Hedgehog, DICER, and the Problem With Naming Genes"
Sep 26, 2014, Michael White. psmag.com It belongs to the SMAD family of proteins, which belong to the TGFβ
Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) is a multifunctional cytokine belonging to the transforming growth factor superfamily that includes three different mammalian isoforms (TGF-β 1 to 3, HGNC symbols TGFB1, TGFB2, TGFB3) and many other sig ...
superfamily of modulators. Like many other TGFβ family members SMAD5 is involved in cell signalling
In biology, cell signaling (cell signalling in British English) or cell communication is the ability of a cell to receive, process, and transmit signals with its environment and with itself. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellula ...
and modulates signals of bone morphogenetic proteins
Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are a group of growth factors also known as cytokines and as metabologens. Originally discovered by their ability to induce the formation of bone and cartilage, BMPs are now considered to constitute a group of piv ...
(BMP's). The binding of ligands causes the oligomerization
In chemistry and biochemistry, an oligomer () is a molecule that consists of a few repeating units which could be derived, actually or conceptually, from smaller molecules, monomers.Quote: ''Oligomer molecule: A molecule of intermediate relative ...
and phosphorylation
In chemistry, phosphorylation is the attachment of a phosphate group to a molecule or an ion. This process and its inverse, dephosphorylation, are common in biology and could be driven by natural selection. Text was copied from this source, wh ...
of the SMAD5 protein. SMAD5 is a receptor regulated SMAD ( R-SMAD) and is activated by bone morphogenetic protein type 1 receptor kinase. It may play a role in the pathway where TGFβ is an inhibitor of hematopoietic
Haematopoiesis (, from Greek , 'blood' and 'to make'; also hematopoiesis in American English; sometimes also h(a)emopoiesis) is the formation of blood cellular components. All cellular blood components are derived from haematopoietic stem cells. ...
progenitor cells.
References
Developmental genes and proteins
MH1 domain
MH2 domain
R-SMAD
Transcription factors
Human proteins
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