Annotated protein:Catenin alpha-2 (Alpha N-catenin). Gene symbol: CTNNA2. Taxonomy: Mus musculus (Mouse). Uniprot ID: Q61301
antibody wiki:
SynGO gene info:SynGO data @ CTNNA2
Ontology domain:Cellular Component
SynGO term:presynaptic active zone cytoplasmic component (GO:0098831)
Synapse type(s):cerebral cortex
cerebellum
Annotated paper:Uchida N, et al. "The catenin/cadherin adhesion system is localized in synaptic junctions bordering transmitter release zones" J Cell Biol. 1996 Nov;135(3):767-79 PMID:8909549
Figure(s):Figure 3B,C, 4A,C-F, 6
Annotation description:The paper examines the localization of alphaN-Catenin and Beta-Catenin using pre-embedding immunogold labeling for electron micropscopy. Catenins are cytoplasmatic proteins that bind the Cadherin family of transmembrane proteins.

Figure 3: localization in the adult cerebellar nucleus. 3B, 3C: Immunogold staining for alphaN-catenin, showing clusters of alphaN-catenin localized at the synaptic junctions nearby both the pre- the postsynaptic plasma membranes. The clusters appear to be located at the rim of transmitter release zones and are associated
with synaptic vesicle clusters (Fig. 3, B and D).

Figure 4: analysis at the cerebral cortex: in axo-spinous synapses (Fig. 4 A, C, D), the immunolabeling was bordering the release sites. In axo-dendritic and axo-somatic synapses (4E,F), aN-catenin signals tended to overlap synaptic vesicle clusters.

Figure 6 shows immunolabelling for alphaN-catenin in developing brains (P10). The labelling is at both sides of the synapse, associated with contact sites, but more diffused, i.e. not segregates to the borders of the release site.

The above findings suggest both a pre- and postsynaptic localization for alphaN-Catenin, with a portion of the signal localized at the presynaptic vesicle clusters.

*Antibody: NCAT5: 'reacted specifically with aN-catenin but not with alphaE-catenin,'
Evidence tracking, Biological System:Intact tissue
Evidence tracking, Protein Targeting:Antibody (detection)
Evidence tracking, Experiment Assay:Electron Microscopy
Annotator(s):Noa Lipstein (ORCID:0000-0002-0755-5899)
Cordelia Imig (ORCID:0000-0001-7351-8706)
Vincent O'connor (ORCID:0000-0003-3185-5709)
Nils Brose (ORCID:0000-0003-0938-8534)
Lab:Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, 37075 Göttingen, Germany
SynGO annotation ID:994
Dataset release (version):20231201
View annotation as GO-CAM model:Gene Ontology