Entrez Summary: Laminins, a family of extracellular matrix glycoproteins, are the major noncollagenous constituent of basement membranes. They have been implicated in a wide variety of biological processes including cell adhesion, differentiation, migration, signaling, neurite outgrowth and metastasis. Laminins are composed of 3 non identical chains: laminin alpha, beta and gamma (formerly A, B1, and B2, respectively) and they form a cruciform structure consisting of 3 short arms, each formed by a different chain, and a long arm composed of all 3 chains. Each laminin chain is a multidomain protein encoded by a distinct gene. Several isoforms of each chain have been described. Different alpha, beta and gamma chain isomers combine to give rise to different heterotrimeric laminin isoforms which are designated by Arabic numerals in the order of their discovery, i.e. alpha1beta1gamma1 heterotrimer is laminin 1. The biological functions of the different chains and trimer molecules are largely unknown, but some of the chains have been shown to differ with respect to their tissue distribution, presumably reflecting diverse functions in vivo. This gene encodes the alpha chain isoform laminin, alpha 4. The domain structure of alpha 4 is similar to that of alpha 3, both of which resemble truncated versions of alpha 1 and alpha 2, in that approximately 1,200 residues at the N-terminus (domains IV, V and VI) have been lost. Laminin, alpha 4 contains the C-terminal G domain which distinguishes all alpha chains from the beta and gamma chains. The RNA analysis from adult and fetal tissues revealed developmental regulation of expression, however, the exact function of laminin, alpha 4 is not known. Tissue-specific utilization of alternative polyA-signal has been described in literature. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms. [provided by RefSeq, Aug 2011].
UniProt Summary: N/A
Pfam DomainsGO Terms
Pfam Domains
Laminin EGF
Laminin G 2
Laminin II
Laminin G 1
Laminin I
GO Terms
negative regulation of cold-induced thermogenesis
basement membrane
regulation of embryonic development
extracellular matrix structural constituent
regulation of cold-induced thermogenesis
signaling receptor binding
extracellular matrix organization
collagen-containing extracellular matrix
extracellular structure organization
regulation of cell adhesion
regulation of cell migration
regulation of cell motility
cell adhesion
biological adhesion
regulation of locomotion
regulation of cellular component movement
negative regulation of multicellular organismal process
extracellular region
CRISPR Data
Compound HitMost Correlated Genes in ChemogenomicsTissues where Essential in the Avana Dataset (DepMap 20Q1)
Compound Hit
No hits were found.
Most Correlated Genes in Chemogenomics
No correlation found to any other genes in chemogenomics.
Tissues where Essential in the Avana Dataset (DepMap 20Q1)
Global Fraction of Cell Lines Where Essential: 0/739