tuftelin tuftelin tuftelin is an acidic phosphorylated glycoprotein found in tooth enamel. in humans, the tuftelin protein is encoded by the tuft1 gene. it is an acidic protein that is thought to play a role in dental enamel mineralization and is implicated in caries susceptibility. it is also thought to be involved with adaptation to hypoxia, mesenchymal stem cell function, and neurotrophin nerve growth factor mediated neuronal differentiation. tuft1identifiersaliasestuft1, entrez:7286, tuftelin 1external idsomim: 600087 mgi: 109572 homologene: 7985 genecards: tuft1 gene location (human)chr.chromosome 1 (human)band1q21.3start151,540,305 bpend151,583,583 bpgene location (mouse)chr.chromosome 3 (mouse)band3|3 f2.1start94,520,064 bpend94,566,179 bprna expression patternbgeehumanmouse (ortholog)top expressed inamniotic fluidpancreatic ductal cellhair follicleskin of abdomenhuman penisendothelial cellnipplecavity of mouthparotid glandkidney tubuletop expressed inlipesophagusretinal pigment epitheliumepidermishair folliclecorneal stromaskin of backskin of abdomenblastocystspermatocytemore reference expression databiogpsn/agene ontologymolecular function structural constituent of tooth enamel protein binding cellular component cytoplasm extracellular region intracellular anatomical structure biological process biomineral tissue development bone mineralization odontogenesis intracellular signal transduction sources:amigo / quickgoorthologsspecieshumanmouseentrez728622156ensemblensg00000143367ensmusg00000005968uniprotq9nnx1o08970refseq (mrna)nm_001126337nm_001301317nm_020127nm_011656nm_001293728refseq (protein)np_001119809np_001288246np_064512np_001280657np_035786location (ucsc)chr 1: 151.54 – 151.58 mbchr 3: 94.52 – 94.57 mbpubmed searchwikidataview/edit humanview/edit mouse classification there are two kinds of enamel proteins: amelogenins & nonamelogenins. tuftelin falls under nonamelogenins. function this protein is formed for a short time during amelogenesis. the function of tuftelins is under contention, but it is proposed that it acts to start the mineralization process of enamel during tooth development. other significant proteins in enamel are amelogenins, enamelins, and ameloblastins. research the human encoding gene for tuftelin (tuft1) was cloned by profs. danny deutsch and aharon palmon from the hebrew university-hadassah school of dental medicine in jerusalem. interactions tuftelin has been shown to interact with tfip11.