Human Dihydrofolate Reductase/DHFR Antibody

DHFR (DiHydroFolate Reductase; also Tetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase) is a 21-23 kDa member of the dihydrofolate reductase family of enzymes. It is a ubiquitously expressed monomer, and considered to be a housekeeping gene. Housekeeping genes are those that play a role in multiple pathways, although not the same pathway(s) in all cells. DHFR participates in the reduction of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate, a product that is subsequently used in the synthesis of purines and thymidylic acid that are used to generate both RNA and DNA. Within the cell, DHFR is known to exist in two pools: one contains DHFR bound to its own RNA where it acts as a transcriptional repressor, while another contains DHFR bound to NADPH. Human DHFR is 187 amino acids (aa) in length and possesses one DHFR domain (aa 4-185). Its mRNA binding motif is suggested to involve Cys6, Leu22, Glu30 and Ser118. There is one potential alternative start site found 75 aa upstream of the standard start site. Full length human DHFR (aa 1-187) shares 90% aa sequence identity with mouse DHFR.