protein and protein like

Question

[loly.pearl86]

Hi,

Can someone please explain to me what is the different between this gene : Collagen Collagen-like Mucin Mucin-like

why its called like , although its Cary the same domains of the original protein ? are they do different function ? or what? My question it not focus on the mucin or collagen ,in general there is different protein example called like .. so i need to understand

Thanks

Answer 1

[WouterDeCoster]

Probably something historical.

Someone found a protein, gave it a name (hypothetically: "biostars kinase": BK), describes it's functions and publishes it. A few months later, someone finds a protein which closely resembles BK, but we don't know anything about the function. We just know it looks like BK. So let's call it "biostars kinase like". Similar structure might mean similar function. BK-like is a pretty good name because it looks like a biostars kinase. We don't know it actually has a slightly different function. Perhaps Bioconductor Support Kinase or Stackoverflow Kinase would have been more appropriate, but renaming it now would give too much confusion and be a real pain in the elbow.

[loly.pearl86]

Thanks WouterDeCoster ,its clear answer

Cheers

[Michael]

Hi loly.pearl86,

Please up vote helpful answers and mark an answer as accepted when it resolves your question.

Cheers, Michael

Answer 2

[5heikki]

It can mean many things, but in general, it probably means that whoever made the annotation wasn't sure if it was X, so they just went with X-like.

[loly.pearl86]

Thanks alot for your answer

[WouterDeCoster]

Hi loly.pearl86,

Please up vote helpful answers and mark an answer as accepted when it resolves your question.

Cheers, Wouter