The 0.6 kb transcript (GenBank:NM_002305) is the result of the splicing of four exons encoding a protein with 135 amino acids (GenPept : NP_002296, SwissProt: P09382) (Figure 2).
Gal-1 occurs as a monomer as well as a non-covalent homodimer consisting of subunits of one CRD (Gal-1, ∼29 kD (Barondes et al.,
1994; Cho and Cummings, 1995).
Each form is associated with different biological activities, as detailed below.