In Silico Analysis and Comparison of Alpha Tubulin Gene with Other Tubulin Families

Microtubules are composed of a heterodimer of alpha and beta tubulins and performs many diverse functions. The genes encoding these microtubule constituents are members of the tubulin superfamily. Studies shown the existence of genes from the alpha, beta and gamma tubulin families in all eukaryotes.

The two main classes includes alpha and beta which mainly represents the tubulin family. There are multiple alpha and beta tubulin genes, which are highly conserved among species. The selected gene encodes alpha tubulin which belongs to its associated protein superfamily. All tubulin genes differ in configuration just because of few amino acid substitutions. The study was performed to analyze the alpha tubulin (TUBA8) gene and its associated protein by using various bioinformatics tools. The gene was matched in HGNC against its particular entry to obtain the HGNC gene ID. The variant analysis shown 3 coding exons, 276 genetic variants and few UTR regions at 3’end of gene. Protein domains were analyzed by protein InterPro domain analysis software.