Background information
ATP13A2 is a 1,180 amino acid multi-pass membrane protein that belongs to the P5 subfamily of ATPases which play an important role in the transportation of inorganic cations. Expressed as multiple alternative spliced isoforms, ATP13A2 functions to catalyze the conversion of ATP to ADP and a free phosphate, thereby participating in the active transport of ions across cellular membranes. Defects in the gene encoding ATP13A2 are the cause of Kufor-Rakeb syndrome (KRS), a rare hereditary type of Parkinson’s disease that exhibits juvenile onset and is characterized by neurodegeneration and dementia. The ATP13A2 gene maps to human chromosome 1, which spans 260 million base pairs, contains over 3,000 genes and comprises nearly 8% of the human genome.
