Figure 6

Schematic presentation of aligned ADAM proteins and gene structures. (A) Schematic presentation of aligned ADAM proteins arranged into 13 subgroups according to similarities in protein sequence and gene structure. The schematic structure at the top shows the ADAM domain structure: Pre, Pro, MP, DI, ACR, EGF, TM, and CT denote the pre-, pro-, metalloprotease, disintegrin, ADAM cysteine-rich, EGF-like, and transmembrane domains, and the cytosolic tail. The intron locations are shown by the vertical lines with none to two crossing tilted lines indicating the intron phase 0, 1, or 2, respectively. The alternatively used exons within the cytosolic-encoding region of ADAM15 are indicated with blue. The alternatively used exons 17 and 18 of ADAM33 and -9, respectively, are indicated with red. The alternative last exon used in the soluble isoform-encoding ADAM12 is indicated by the letter A. Regional differences in the number of amino acids within ADAM subgroup alignment are indicated by asterisks. The location of intact metalloprotease active sites and the disintegrin loop are indicated with letters H and D, respectively. (B) Cytosolic tail-encoding gene structures of ADAMs. Alternative exon use is indicated with blue. (C) Phylogenetic tree depicting the amino acid sequence-similarities between the ADAM proteins.