ADP Ribosyltransferase 3 (ART3)

The predicted 367-amino acid ART3 protein has an estimated molecular mass of 41.5 kD and contains a hydrophobic peptide signal at its N terminus, 3 consensus motifs specific to enzymes catalyzing ADP-ribose transfer, a hydrophobic C-terminal sequence characteristic of a GPI-anchored protein, a novel motif repeated 3 times at its C terminus, and 1 potential glycosylation site.

The ART3 and rodent RT6 proteins share 35% amino acid identity. The authors detected a 1.8-kb ART3 transcript only in testis using high stringency Northern blot analysis. Southern blot analysis revealed that ART3 is a single-copy gene in the human genome; the genomes of monkey, dog, and cow but not of rodents contain sequences related to ART3.