CLSTN2 contains allelic variants that are identified in genome wide association studies of individual differences in memory and executive function as well as the cognitive ability/Alzheimer’s disease vulnerability and frontal brain volume phenotypes reviewed here [178, 179]. CLSTN2 is expressed in frontal cortex and hippocampus [172]. CLSTN2 is well-positioned to provide calcium-dependent cell adhesion functions in the brain regions that include hippocampus and in the postsynaptic densities where it is highly expressed. The structure and expression of CLSTN2 make it a good candidate to function as a single transmembrane domain cell adhesion molecule in which variants could alter the ways in which neuronal and synaptic connections develop, the ways in which they are maintained and reorganized in adult brains or both.
