Utrophin

Utrophin is a protein that in humans is encoded by the UTRN gene.

The protein encoded by this gene is a component of the cytoskeleton. Utrophin was found during research into Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. The name is a contraction for ubiquitous dystrophin. The 900 kb gene for utrophin is found on the long arm of human chromosome 6. Utrophin was discovered due to its homology with dystrophin. It was found by screening a peptide containing the C-terminal domain of dystrophin against cDNA libraries. The homology varies over its full length from less than 30% in regions of the central rod structural domain, to 85% (identity 73%) for the actin binding domain.