Identification and location of brain protein 4.1.

Protein 4.1 is a membrane skeletal protein that converts the low-affinity interaction between spectrin and actin into a high-affinity ternary complex of spectrin, protein 4.1, and actin that is essential to the structural stability of the erythrocyte. Pig brain was shown to contain an 87-kilodalton immunoreactive analog of protein 4.1 that has partial sequence homology with pig erythrocyte protein 4.1 and the same location as spectrin in the cortical cytoplasm of neuronal and glial cell types of the cerebellum.