Cloning and characterization of a novel splice variant of human Rab18 gene (RAB18).

Rab GTPase proteins are a kind of small GTP-binding proteins, which functions mainly focus on regulating interacellular trafficking pathways during vesicular transport. To date, 60 distinct human RAB proteins have been identified. RAB18 gene is discovered from endothelial cells. Its function is considered as endosomes and plasma membrane recycling. Research indicates RAB18 may relate to inflammation and some kinds of tumor. Here we report a splice variant of RAB18, which is 2571 bp in length and has an open reading frame coding a predicted 235 amino-acids protein. RT-PCR shows that the cDNA has different expression pattern with RAB18 and is highly expressed in testis.