Molecular cloning of protein 4.1, a major structural element of the human erythrocyte membrane skeleton

Protein 4.1 is an important structural protein that is expressed in erythroid and in a variety of non-erythroid tissues. In mammalian erythrocytes, it plays a key role in regulating membrane physical properties of mechanical stability and deformability by stabilizing spectrin-actin interaction. We report here the molecular cloning and characterization of human erythrocyte protein 4.1 cDNA and the complete amino acid sequence of the protein derived from the nucleotide sequence. Probes prepared from the cloned erythrocyte protein 4.1 cDNA hybridized with distinct mRNA species from a wide variety of non-erythroid tissues, including brain, liver, placenta, pancreas, and intestine, implying substantial homology between erythroid and non-erythroid protein 4.1. The availability of cloned erythrocyte protein 4.1 cDNA should facilitate the study of the functional characteristics of this protein in erythroid as well as non-erythroid cells.