Nipsnap Homolog 3B (NIPSNAP3B)

NIPSNAP3B belongs to a family of proteins with putative roles in vesicular trafficking. Both genes encode deduced 247-amino acid proteins that share 87% identity and contain putative N-glycosylation, myristoylation, and phosphorylation sites. Real-time PCR detected NIPSNAP3B expression at variable levels in all tissues examined except liver. Highest expression was in skeletal muscle.

NIPSNAP3B gene contains 6 exons. The proximal promoter region lacks a TATA box but is GC rich. Since the NIPSNAP3A and NIPSNAP3B genes share the same genomic structure and exon size, Buechler et al. (2004) suggested that they arose from a relatively recent gene duplication event.