SAR1 Gene Homolog A (SAR1A)

South et al. (2000) used the sequence of mouse SaR1a to identify human SAR1A through BLAST searches of the human database of expressed sequence tags.

By searching databases, followed by PCR, He et al. (2002) cloned human SAR1A, which they called SARA2. The deduced 198-amino acid SAR1A protein contains 4 highly conserved GTPase motifs. Northern blot analysis detected strong expression of an approximately 1.35-kb transcript only in liver and skeletal muscle. Lower expression was detected in heart and testis, and little to no expression was detected in other tissues examined. A transcript of about 7.5 kb was also detected in liver and skeletal muscle.