LALBA, Official Symbol LALBAprovided by HGNC Official Full Name lactalbumin alphaprovided by HGNC Primary source HGNC:HGNC:6480 See related Ensembl:ENSG00000167531 MIM:149750; AllianceGenome:HGNC:6480 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 LYZG; HAMLET Summary This gene encodes alpha-lactalbumin, a principal protein of milk. Alpha-lactalbumin forms the regulatory subunit of the lactose synthase (LS) heterodimer and beta 1,4-galactosyltransferase (beta4Gal-T1) forms the catalytic component. Together, these proteins enable LS to produce lactose by transfering galactose moieties to glucose. As a monomer, alpha-lactalbumin strongly binds calcium and zinc ions and may possess bactericidal or antitumor activity. A folding variant of alpha-lactalbumin, called HAMLET, likely induces apoptosis in tumor and immature cells. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008] Expression Low expression observed in reference dataset See more Orthologs mouse all