Characterization of a human Sec14-like protein cDNA SEC14L3 highly homologous to human SPF/TAP.

Supernatant protein factor (SPF) and alpha-tocopherol-associated protein (TAP) both belong to a widespread lipid-binding Sec 14-like protein family. All the members of the family have the lipid-binding motif called CRAL_TRIO. SPF is showed to stimulate the conversion of squalene to lanosterol and enhance cholesterol biosynthesis. TAP is identified to be involved in the intracellular distribution of alpha-tocopherol. Recently TAP is identified as SPF though they have very different functions. Here we report a human SPF/TAP homology SEC14L3 with 2082 base pairs in length and contains an open reading frame encoding a 400 amino acids protein. Analysis shows that SEC14L3 is mapped to 22q12 and expresses only in the liver among the used sixteen tissues in the test.