DEFB107B - Defensin Beta 107B

Defensins form a family of antimicrobial and cytotoxic peptides made by neutrophils. Defensins are short, processed peptide molecules that are classified by structure into three groups: alpha-defensins, beta-defensins and theta-defensins. All beta-defensin genes are densely clustered in four to five syntenic chromosomal regions. Chromosome 8p23 contains at least two copies of the duplicated beta-defensin cluster. This duplication results in two identical copies of defensin, beta 107, DEFB107A and DEFB107B, in tail-to-tail orientation. This gene, DEFB107B, represents the more telomeric copy. [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2014]