Retrotransposon Gag like 3 is a
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...
that in humans is encoded by the RTL3
gene
In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
.
[
]
Function
This gene is a member of a family of gag-related retrotransposon genes. These genes appear to have lost the ability to retrotranspose; however, their
open reading frame
In molecular biology, reading frames are defined as spans of DNA sequence between the start and stop codons. Usually, this is considered within a studied region of a prokaryotic DNA sequence, where only one of the six possible reading frames ...
s have remained intact, which may indicate that these genes have acquired new functions in the cell. Retrotransposon gag-like-3 (RTL3/ZCCHC5/MART3) is one of eleven Sushi-like neogenes identified in the human genome7 RTL3 encodes a 53 kDa protein with a nucleic acid-binding domain (CX2CX4HX4C), gag-like region within the open reading frame and an ssDNA/RNA-binding homeobox-associated leucine zipper motif.
It has been reported that RTL3 and SOX-9 co-regulate the expression of COL2A1 in chondrocytes.
References
{{gene-X-stub