DEFA3

Defensin, alpha 3, neutrophil-specific
PDB rendering based on 1zmh.
Available structures PDB 1DFN, 1ZMH, 1ZMI, 1ZMK, 2PM4, 2PM5
Identifiers
Symbols	DEFA3; DEF3; HNP-3; HNP3; HP-3; HP3
External IDs	OMIM: 604522 HomoloGene: 121760 GeneCards: DEFA3 Gene
Gene Ontology Cellular component • extracellular region • extracellular space Biological process • response to virus • killing of cells of other organism • defense response to bacterium • defense response to fungus Sources: Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs
Species	Human	Mouse
Entrez	1668	n/a
Ensembl	ENSG00000239839	n/a
UniProt	P59666	n/a
RefSeq (mRNA)	NM_005217	n/a
RefSeq (protein)	NP_005208	n/a
Location (UCSC)	Chr 8: 6.87 – 6.88 Mb	n/a
PubMed search	[1]	n/a

Defensin, alpha 3 (DEFA3) also known as human alpha defensin 3, human neutrophil peptide 3 (HNP-3) or neutrophil defensin 3 is a human protein that is encoded by the DEFA3 gene.^[1] Human alpha defensin 3 belongs to the alpha defensin family of antimicrobial peptides.

Function

Defensins are a family of microbicidal and cytotoxic peptides thought to be involved in host defense. They are abundant in the granules of neutrophils and also found in the epithelia of mucosal surfaces such as those of the intestine, respiratory tract, urinary tract, and vagina. Members of the defensin family are highly similar in protein sequence and distinguished by a conserved cysteine motif. Several alpha defensin genes are clustered on chromosome 8. The protein encoded by this gene, defensin, alpha 3, is found in the microbicidal granules of neutrophils and likely plays a role in phagocyte-mediated host defense. Several alpha defensin genes are clustered on chromosome 8. This gene differs from defensin, alpha 1 by only one amino acid. This gene and the gene encoding defensin, alpha 1 are both subject to copy number variation.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Entrez Gene: defensin". http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=gene&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=728358. 

Further reading

• Kocsis AK, Ocsovszky I, Tiszlavicz L, et al. (2009). "Helicobacter pylori induces the release of alpha-defensin by human granulocytes.". Inflamm. Res. 58 (5): 241–7. doi:10.1007/s00011-008-8100-z. PMID 19169650. 
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH, et al. (2002). "Generation and initial analysis of more than 15,000 full-length human and mouse cDNA sequences.". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99 (26): 16899–903. doi:10.1073/pnas.242603899. PMC 139241. PMID 12477932. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=139241. 
• Aldred PM, Hollox EJ, Armour JA (2005). "Copy number polymorphism and expression level variation of the human alpha-defensin genes DEFA1 and DEFA3.". Hum. Mol. Genet. 14 (14): 2045–52. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddi209. PMID 15944200. 

This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.