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Updated: Jun 24, 2026

In Vivo Functional Study of Disease-associated Rare Human Variants Using Drosophila
Published on: August 20, 2019
Tissue-specific expression and subcellular localization of ALADIN, the absence of which causes human triple A
A Ri Cho1, Keum Jin Yang, Yoonsun Bae
1Department of Research Institute of Molecular Genetics, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-040, Korea.
Abstract:
Triple A syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations in the achalasia-addisonianism-alacrima syndrome (AAAS) gene which encodes a tryptophan aspartic acid (WD) repeat-containing protein named alacrima-achalasia-adrenal insufficiency neurologic disorder (ALADIN). Northern blot analysis shows that the 2.1 kb AAAS mRNA is expressed in various tissues with stronger expression in testis and pancreas. We show that human ALADIN is a protein with an apparent molecular weight of 60 kDa, and expressed in the adrenal gland, pituitary gland and pancreas. Furthermore, biochemical analysis using anti-ALADIN antibody supports the previous finding of the localization of ALADIN in the nuclear membrane. The mutations S544G and S544X show that alteration of S544 residue affects correct targeting of ALADIN to the nuclear membrane.
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