Background

Chloride intracellular channel 6 (CLIC6) is a probable chloride ion channel belonging to the chloride channel CLIC family. CLIC6 is believed to play a critical role in water-secreting cells, possibly through the regulation of chloride ion transport. 2 essential features distinguish CLIC6 from other members of the family: the CLIC6 protein is significantly longer and the CLIC6 gene contains a GC rich segment, which encodes a 10 amino acid motif repeated 14 times in the amino-terminus. The CLIC6 gene is a rare example of large-scale segmental paralogy in which a large (approximately 500 kb) segment on human chromosome (HC) 21 (21q22) is triplicated on HC 1 and HC 6. CLIC6 is also known to interact with dopamine receptors DRD2, DRD3 and DRD4. CLIC6 is primarily expressed in the cytoplasm, however, upon chloride ion efflux from the cell, CLIC6 is translocated to the plasma membrane. CLIC6 has been identified in brain, placenta, pancreas and liver. CLIC6 is a 704 amino acid protein and there are 2 known isoforms, A and B. CLIC6 is also identified as parchorin in rabbit.