ID:A2MG_HUMAN DESCRIPTION: RecName: Full=Alpha-2-macroglobulin; Short=Alpha-2-M; AltName: Full=C3 and PZP-like alpha-2-macroglobulin domain-containing protein 5; Flags: Precursor; FUNCTION: Is able to inhibit all four classes of proteinases by a unique 'trapping' mechanism. This protein has a peptide stretch, called the 'bait region' which contains specific cleavage sites for different proteinases. When a proteinase cleaves the bait region, a conformational change is induced in the protein which traps the proteinase. The entrapped enzyme remains active against low molecular weight substrates (activity against high molecular weight substrates is greatly reduced). Following cleavage in the bait region a thioester bond is hydrolyzed and mediates the covalent binding of the protein to the proteinase. SUBUNIT: Homotetramer; disulfide-linked. SUBCELLULAR LOCATION: Secreted. TISSUE SPECIFICITY: Secreted in plasma. DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE: Contrary to the rat protein, which is an acute phase protein, this protein is always present at high levels in circulation. SIMILARITY: Belongs to the protease inhibitor I39 (alpha-2- macroglobulin) family. SEQUENCE CAUTION: Sequence=AAT02228.1; Type=Erroneous initiation; Note=Translation N-terminally shortened; Sequence=BAD92851.1; Type=Erroneous initiation; Note=Translation N-terminally shortened; WEB RESOURCE: Name=Wikipedia; Note=Alpha-2 macroglobulin entry; URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_2-macroglobulin";
The RNAfold program from the Vienna RNA Package is used to perform the secondary structure predictions and folding calculations. The estimated folding energy is in kcal/mol. The more negative the energy, the more secondary structure the RNA is likely to have.
ModBase Predicted Comparative 3D Structure on P01023
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Orthologous Genes in Other Species
Orthologies between human, mouse, and rat are computed by taking the best BLASTP hit, and filtering out non-syntenic hits. For more distant species reciprocal-best BLASTP hits are used. Note that the absence of an ortholog in the table below may reflect incomplete annotations in the other species rather than a true absence of the orthologous gene.
US Server
Sequence and Links to Tools and Databases 
Common Gene Haplotype Alleles 
