Eukaryotic and prokaryotic stomatins: the proteolytic link.

The 32kD membrane protein stomatin was first studied because it is deficient from the red cell membrane in two forms of the class of haemolytic anaemias known as "hereditary stomatocytosis." The hallmark of these conditions is a plasma membrane leak to the monovalent cations Na+ and K+: the protein is missing only in the most severely leaky of these conditions. No mutation has ever been found in the stomatin gene in these conditions.