CRYAB, Official Symbol CRYABprovided by HGNC Official Full Name crystallin alpha Bprovided by HGNC Primary source HGNC:HGNC:2389 See related Ensembl:ENSG00000109846 MIM:123590; AllianceGenome:HGNC:2389 Gene type protein coding RefSeq status REVIEWED Organism Homo sapiens Lineage Eukaryota; Metazoa; Chordata; Craniata; Vertebrata; Euteleostomi; Mammalia; Eutheria; Euarchontoglires; Primates; Haplorrhini; Catarrhini; Hominidae; Homo Also known as MFM2; CRYA2; CTPP2; HSPB5; CMD1II; CTRCT16; HEL-S-101 Summary Mammalian lens crystallins are divided into alpha, beta, and gamma families. Alpha crystallins are composed of two gene products: alpha-A and alpha-B, for acidic and basic, respectively. Alpha crystallins can be induced by heat shock and are members of the small heat shock protein (HSP20) family. They act as molecular chaperones although they do not renature proteins and release them in the fashion of a true chaperone; instead they hold them in large soluble aggregates. These heterogeneous aggregates consist of 30-40 subunits; the alpha-A and alpha-B subunits have a 3:1 ratio, respectively. Two additional functions of alpha crystallins are an autokinase activity and participation in the intracellular architecture. The encoded protein has been identified as a moonlighting protein based on its ability to perform mechanistically distinct functions. Alpha-A and alpha-B gene products are differentially expressed; alpha-A is preferentially restricted to the lens and alpha-B is expressed widely in many tissues and organs. Elevated expression of alpha-B crystallin occurs in many neurological diseases; a missense mutation cosegregated in a family with a desmin-related myopathy. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Jan 2019] Expression Biased expression in heart (RPKM 784.6), brain (RPKM 268.6) and 5 other tissues See more Orthologs mouse all