Thy-1: a hydrophobic transmembrane segment at the carboxyl terminus.

Thy-1 is a membrane glycoprotein distributed throughout mammalian species and expressed on brain tissue and various cells of the hematopoietic lineage. The nucleotide sequences of rat and mouse Thy-1 genes revealed a similar gene organization and the existence of an extra 31 amino acid segment at the carboxyl terminus not described previously. These extra amino acids, highly conserved in both species, include a 20 amino acid hydrophobic segment at the carboxyl terminus, which may be responsible for integration of Thy-1 within the plasma membrane.