Mammalian band 7 protein [1] (also known as 7.2B or stomatin) is an integral membrane phosphoprotein of red blood cells thought to regulate cation conductance by interacting with other proteins of the junctional complex of the membrane skeleton. Structurally, band 7 is evolutionary related to the following proteins:

• Caenorhabditis elegans protein mec-2 [2]. Mec-2 positively regulates the activity of the putative mechanosensory transduction channel. It may links the mechanosensory channel and the microtubule cytoskeleton of the touch receptor neurons.
• Caenorhabditis elegans proteins sto-1 to sto-4.
• Caenorhabditis elegans protein unc-1.
• Escherichia coli hypothetical protein ybbK.
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis hypothetical protein MtCY277.09.
• Synechocystis strain PCC 6803 hypothetical protein slr1128.
• Methanococcus jannaschii hypothetical protein MJ0827.

Structurally all these proteins consist of a short N-terminal domain which is followed by a transmembrane region and a variable size (from 170 to 350 residues) C-terminal domain.

As a signature pattern, we selected a conserved region located about 110 residues after the transmembrane domain.