Tuftelin is an acidic
phosphorylated
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, whi ...
glycoprotein
Glycoproteins are proteins which contain oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to amino acid side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycos ...
found in
tooth enamel
Tooth enamel is one of the four major Tissue (biology), tissues that make up the tooth in humans and many other animals, including some species of fish. It makes up the normally visible part of the tooth, covering the Crown (tooth), crown. The ...
. In humans, the Tuftelin protein is encoded by the ''TUFT1'' gene.
It is an acidic protein that is thought to play a role in dental enamel mineralization and is implicated in caries susceptibility. It is also thought to be involved with adaptation to hypoxia, mesenchymal stem cell function, and neurotrophin nerve growth factor mediated neuronal differentiation.
Classification
There are two kinds of enamel proteins:
Amelogenins & Nonamelogenins. Tuftelin falls under nonamelogenins.
Function
This protein is formed for a short time during
amelogenesis
Amelogenesis is the formation of enamel on teeth and begins when the crown is forming during the advanced bell stage of tooth development after dentinogenesis forms a first layer of dentin. Dentin must be present for enamel to be formed. Amelobla ...
. The function of tuftelins is under contention, but it is proposed that it acts to start the mineralization process of enamel during
tooth development
Tooth development or odontogenesis is the complex process by which teeth form from embryonic cells, grow, and erupt into the mouth. For human teeth to have a healthy oral environment, all parts of the tooth must develop during appropriate stag ...
.
Other significant proteins in enamel are
amelogenin
Amelogenins are a group of protein isoforms produced by alternative splicing or proteolysis from the ''AMELX'' gene, on the X chromosome, and also the ''AMELY'' gene in males, on the Y chromosome. They are involved in amelogenesis, the developmen ...
s,
enamelin
Enamelin is an enamel matrix protein (EMPs), that in humans is encoded by the ''ENAM'' gene. It is part of the non-amelogenins, which comprise 10% of the total enamel matrix proteins. It is one of the key proteins thought to be involved in amelo ...
s, and
ameloblastin
Ameloblastin (abbreviated AMBN and also known as Sheathlin or Amelin) is an enamel matrix protein that in humans is encoded by the AMBN gene.
Function
Ameloblastin is a specific protein found in tooth enamel. Although less than 5% of enamel con ...
s.
Research
The human encoding
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 ...
for tuftelin (TUFT1) was cloned by Profs. Danny Deutsch and Aharon Palmon from the
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
-
Hadassah School of Dental Medicine in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
.
Interactions
Tuftelin has been shown to
interact
Advocates for Informed Choice, dba interACT or interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization using innovative strategies to advocate for the legal and human rights of children with intersex traits. The organizati ...
with
TFIP11.
References
Further reading
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Teeth