StAR Related Lipid Transfer Domain Containing Protein 9 (STARD9)

StAR proteins and proteins with StAR-related lipid transfer (START) domains are involved in lipid transport and metabolism, signal transduction, and transcriptional regulation. The human StARD9 gene, consisting of 11 exons, was located within human genome sequence CTD-2036P10 . The complete coding sequence of human StARD9 cDNA was determined by DKFZp781J069 cDNA , which was identified by using a partial coding sequence of human StARD9 cDNA as a query. The existing predicted gene model could be refined based on EST-analysis. Comparison of the human protein sequence with chimpanzee, rat, mouse and chicken homologs showed a 98% (chimpanzee), 60% (rat), 60% (mouse) and 45% (chicken) amino-acid identity respectively. A lipid-binding START domain was identified within StARD9 protein.