Apolipoprotein B mRNA Editing Enzyme Catalytic Polypeptide 3A (APOBEC3A)

APOBEC3A is a cytidine deaminase with antiviral effects. While other members of the family such as APOBEC3G are believed to act by editing ssDNA or RNA by removing an amino group from cytidine, introducing a cytidine to uracil mutation, recent studies show that APOBEC3A inhibits parvoviruses by another mechanism.The cellular function of APOBEC3A is likely to be the destruction of foreign DNA through extensive deamination of cytosine. This gene is a member of the cytidine deaminase gene family. It is one of seven related genes or pseudogenes found in a cluster, thought to result from gene duplication, on chromosome 22. Members of the cluster encode proteins that are structurally and functionally related to the C to U RNA-editing cytidine deaminase APOBEC1.