Figure 1

Multiple alignment and family tree of claudin proteins. A. ClustalW was used to generate alignment of all the human claudin protein sequences and the residues were then colored using Jalview [21] according to amino acid conservation among family members. Red bars underneath alignment indicate predicted transmembrane domains. The level of conservation and the consensus are also shown below the alignment. B. Phylogenetic tree of claudin family members. The tree was generated using ClustalW and visualize in Jalview. The numbers on the branches are Blosum62 scores, indicating distances among family members.