Voltage Dependent Anion Channel Protein 3 (VDAC3)

VDAC3 belongs to a group of mitochondrial membrane channels involved in translocation of adenine nucleotides through the outer membrane. These channels may also function as a mitochondrial binding site for hexokinase and glycerol kinase.

The deduced 283-amino acid protein is 67% identical to VDAC1 and 73% identical to VDAC2. Northern blot analysis detected a 1.4-kb transcript in all tissues examined, with high expression in testis. SDS-PAGE of transfected COS-1 cells showed epitope-tagged VDAC3 at about 30 kD.

RNA interference-mediated knockdown of VDAC2 or VDAC3 caused resistance to erastin, implicating these 2 VDAC isoforms in the mechanism of action of erastin.