Sequence analysis of a human RhoGAP domain-containing gene and characterization of its expression in human multiple tissues

Rho GTPase activating proteins (GAPs) stimulate the intrinsic GTP hydrolysis activity of Rho family proteins. Here we isolated a rhoGAP domain-containing protein gene with the same reading frame with ARHGAP19 gene, which has an ORF of 1485 bp encoding a putative protein of 494 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular mass of 55.806 kDa. Protein pattern analysis shows that it contains a bipartite nuclear localization signal ( NLS) besides the rhoGAP domain, and it is consistent with the result of sub-cellular localization. ARHGAP19 is located in chromosome 10q24.1 and consists of 12 exons according to the Blastn result. Weak expression was detected in adult pancreas, spleen, thymus and ovary of the 16 adult tissues examined, while it had a more abundant expression pattern in eight important human fetal tissues. The expression pattern of ARHGAP19 shows it may have functions related to fetus development and gives us some clues on its probable functions in adult tissues.