Centaurin Beta 6 (CENTb6)

ASAP3 encodes a member of a subfamily of ADP-ribosylation factor(Arf) GTPase-activating proteins that contain additional ankyrin repeat and pleckstrin homology domains. The Arf GAP domain of this protein catalyzes the hydrolysis of GTP bound to Arf proteins. The protein promotes cell differentiation and migration and has been implicated in cancer cell invasion. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. The deduced 903-amino acid sequence showed 46% homology to DDEF/ASAP1, and contained an Arf GTPase-activating protein (ArfGAP) domain and two ankyrin repeats. Gene transfer of DDEFL1 promoted proliferation of cells that lacked endogenous expression of this gene. Reduction of DDEFL1 expression by transfection of anti-sense S-oligonucleotides inhibited the growth of SNU475 cancer cells, in which DDEFL1 expression was highly up-regulated.