Vav 3 Oncogene (VAV3)

Guanine nucleotide exchange factor VAV3 is a member of the VAV gene family. The VAV proteins are guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) for Rho family GTPases that activate pathways leading to actin cytoskeletal rearrangements and transcriptional alterations.

This gene product acts as a GEF preferentially for RhoG, RhoA, and to a lesser extent, RAC1, and it associates maximally with the nucleotide-free states of these GTPases. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been described for this gene. VAV proteins are an essential and direct link between receptors with intrinsic or associated tyrosine kinase activity and the mitogenic and cytoskeletal pathways regulated by Rho/Rac proteins .