N-Acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2)

NAT2 isa type of N-acetyltransferase. The NAT2 isozyme functions to both activate and deactivate arylamine and hydrazine drugs and carcinogens. Polymorphisms in this gene are responsible for the N-acetylation polymorphism in which human populations segregate into rapid, intermediate, and slow acetylator phenotypes. Polymorphisms in NAT2 are also associated with higher incidences of cancer and drug toxicity.

NAT2 encodes the polymorphic NAT protein because the gene product had an identical apparent molecular weight to that of NAT detected in human liver cytosol and the deduced amino acid sequence of NAT2 contained 6 peptide sequences that had previously been determined from tryptic peptides of the polymorphic NAT purified from human liver.