Functional Domains and Evolutionary History of the PMEL and GPNMB Family Proteins.

The ancient paralogs premelanosome protein () and glycoprotein nonmetastatic melanoma protein B () have independently emerged as intriguing disease loci in recent years. Both proteins possess common functional domains and variants that cause a shared spectrum of overlapping phenotypes and disease associations: melanin-based pigmentation, cancer, neurodegenerative disease and glaucoma. Surprisingly, these proteins have yet to be shown to physically or genetically interact within the same cellular pathway.