Genomic structure of the human ezrin gene

The ERM proteins, ezrin, radixin, and moesin, act as linkers between the pl asma membrane and actin cytoskeleton. They are involved in a variety of cel lular functions, such as cell adhesion, migration, and the organization of cell surface structures, and are highly homologous, both in protein sequenc e and in functional activity, with merlin/schwannomin, a neurofibromatosis- 2-associated tumor-suppressor protein. We report here the genomic structure and intron junction sequences of the human ezrin gene. Ezrin consists of 1 3 exons and spans approximately 24 kb genomic DNA. The coding parts of the exons range in size from 12 bp to 275 bp and the introns from 182 bp to 7 k b. The genomic structures of ezrin and moesin are highly conserved, suggest ing their recent divergence. Radiation hybrid mapping has refined the locat ion of ezrin to the interval between D6S442 and D6S281.