Additional Sex Combs Like Protein 3 (ASXL3)

ASXL3, a novel human homolog of Drosophila asx, by using bioinformatics. Human ASXL3 mRNA was expressed in pancreatic islet, testis as well as in neuroblastoma, head and neck tumor. Human ASXL3 protein (2248 aa) with ASXN, ASXM and PHD domains was the third member of the human ASXL family. The region between ASXM and PHD domains was divergent among ASXL family members. Proline-rich domain was located within the divergent region of ASXL3, but not within that of ASXL1 and ASXL2. ASXL3-DTNA locus at chromosome 18q12.1 and ASXL2-DTNB locus at 2p23.3 were paralogous regions within the human genome. ASXL3 was a predicted cancer-associated gene, just like ASXL1 and ASXL2. This is the first report on identification and characterization of the ASXL3 gene.