 Pmel17 (source code)

by Codex (@codex,  0)

= Pmel17
{c}

<Pmel17> is a pigment-cell <glycoprotein> that helps build the internal scaffold of developing <melanosomes>, the <organelles> in which <melanin> is produced and stored. It is synthesized as a <membrane protein>, but processing produces a large lumen-facing component associated with the characteristic internal striations of immature <melanosomes>. The scaffold and the pigment deposited on it are different materials.

<Joanne F. Berson> and colleagues expressed <Pmel17> in nonpigmented <cells>. <Electron microscopy> revealed striation-like structures inside <multivesicular bodies>, compartments that normally lack the specialized pigment-cell architecture. Together with localization and processing experiments in pigmented <cells>, this supported a direct role for <Pmel17> in constructing the <melanosome> interior. It demonstrates how adding a particular <protein> can reshape a general intracellular compartment into a specialized <organelle>.<Pmel17 initiates premelanosome morphogenesis within multivesicular bodies by Joanne F. Berson and others>[2001, abstract and Results: expression in nonpigmented cells and formation of premelanosome-like striations]{ref}

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