Families
In humans, 22 members of the FGF family have been identified, all of which are structurally related signaling molecules:
- Members FGF1 through FGF10 all bind fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs). FGF1 is also known as acidic, and FGF2 is also known as basic fibroblast growth factor.
- Members FGF11, FGF12, FGF13, and FGF14, also known as FGF homologous factors 1-4 (FHF1-FHF4), have been shown to have distinct functional differences compared to the FGFs. Although these factors possess remarkably similar sequence homology, they do not bind FGFRs and are involved in intracellular processes unrelated to the FGFs. This group is also known as "iFGF".
- Members FGF16 through FGF23 are newer and not as well characterized. FGF15 is the mouse ortholog of human FGF19 (hence there is no human FGF15).
- Human FGF20 was identified based on its homology to Xenopus FGF-20 (XFGF-20).
- In contrast to the local activity of the other FGFs, FGF15/FGF19, FGF21 and FGF23 have more systemic effects.
Read more about this topic: Fibroblast Growth Factor
Famous quotes containing the word families:
“For much of the female half of the world, food is the first signal of our inferiority. It lets us know that our own families may consider female bodies to be less deserving, less needy, less valuable.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)
“The authoritarian child-rearing style so often found in working-class families stems in part from the fact that parents see around them so many young people whose lives are touched by the pain and delinquency that so often accompanies a life of poverty. Therefore, these parents live in fear for their children’s future—fear that they’ll lose control, that the children will wind up on the streets or, worse yet, in jail.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)
“There is a city myth that country life was isolated and lonely; the truth is that farmers and their families then had a richer social life than they have now. They enjoyed a society organic, satisfying and whole, not mixed and thinned with the life of town, city and nation as it now is.”
—Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1965)