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Description

Thy-1 membrane glycoprotein (UniProt: P01830, also known as Thy-1 antigen, CD90) is encoded by the Thy1 (also known as Thy-1) gene (Gene ID: 24832) in rat. Thy-1 is a heavily glycosylated, GPI-anchored membrane glycoprotein that is distributed throughout mammalian species. Thy-1 is synthesized with a 19 amino acid signal sequence and 31 amino acid C-terminal transmembrane domain that is present in pro form, but removed when transferring the 112 amino acid mature peptide to GPI anchor. It is present in large amounts on thymus and brain cells and in smaller quantities on fibroblasts, epidermal cells, mammary glands and immature skeletal muscle. In many of these tissues the level of Thy-1 expression changes dramatically during cell differentiation. Thy-1 plays a role in cell-cell or cell-ligand interactions during synaptogenesis and other events in the brain. Thy-1 is one of the most heavily glycosylated membrane proteins with a carbohydrate content up to 30% of its molecular mass. In most species Thy-1 has 3 N-glycosylation sites (Asn 23, 74, and 98) but no O-glycosylation. The glycosylation appears to be tissue specific and the composition of Thy-1 carbohydrate moieties is shown to vary between different tissues or even among cells of the same lineage at different stages of differentiation. Thy-1 is a differentiation marker for thymocytes and can serve as a surrogate marker for various kinds of stem cells.