ANK Protein Domain

Breedan and Nasmyth first reported a 33 amino acid repeat common among a small number of proteins. Subsequently, a cytoskeletal protein named Ankyrin was identified that was composed almost entirely of these short repeats. To date, ANK repeats have been identified in over 1700 different proteins from viruses, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. ANK repeats have been implicated in mediating protein—protein interactions although no common theme among the known ANK domain protein targets has been identified.