Summary
The gene ace-3 encodes acetylcholinesterase class C [Kolson and Russell, 1985; Johnson et al, 1988; Combes et al, 2000]. It produces 5% of the total AChE activity. The H subunit associates into dimers of glycolipid-anchored catalytic subunits, highly resistant to the usual AChE inhibitors. It hydrolyze butyrylthiocholine faster than acetylthiocholine. Absence of the three classes A B C of acetylcholinesterases together, in the ace-1 ace-2 ace-3 triple mutant, leads to paralysis and late embryonic/early larval lethality [Johnson et al, 1988]. ace-3 is expressed at all stages of development[Wormbase] ace-3 encodes one of four C. elegans acetylcholinesterases (AChE); ACE-3 represents ~5% of the total AChE activity in C. elegans and in vitro, hydrolyzes acetylthio-, butyrylthio-, and propionylthiocholine substrates with equal efficiency; although loss-of-function mutations in ace-3 result in no obvious defects, animals doubly mutant with ace-1 or ace-2 have slight defects in backward locomotion and animals triply mutant for ace-1, -2, and -3 arrest as unhatched, yet fully developed, embryos; ace-3 is the downstream gene in an operon with a fourth AChE-encoding gene, ace-4, and transcriptional reporter fusions with ace-4 upstream sequences direct expression in pharyngeal muscles pm3, 4, 5, and 7, the two CAN (canal associated neuron) cells, midbody dorsal body wall muscles in larvae, and several neurons in the head and anal ganglion.
Wormbase predicts one model.

AceView summary
According to AceView, this gene is well expressed, 0.6 times the average gene in this release, at all stages of development [Kohara cDNAs]. The sequence of this gene is defined by 8 cDNA clones.
The gene contains 7 distinct gt-ag introns. Transcription produces one spliced mRNA, 1 alternatively spliced variant and 1 unspliced form.
Protein coding potential: The spliced and the unspliced mRNAs putatively encode good proteins, altogether 2 different isoforms (1 complete, 2 COOH complete), some containing Carboxylesterase, type B domain [Pfam].
Function: There are 11 articles specifically referring to this gene in PubMed. In addition we point below to 16 abstracts. This gene is associated to a phenotype (abnormal ACEtylcholinesterase). Proteins are expected to localize in membrane.

Please quote: AceView: a comprehensive cDNA-supported gene and transcripts annotation, Genome Biology 2006, 7(Suppl 1):S12

Map: This gene ace-3 maps on chomosome II at position +23.60 (interpolated). In AceView, it covers 4.58 kb, from 14205536 to 14210114 (WS190), on the direct strand.
Links to: WormBase, RNAiDB.
Other names: The gene is also known in Wormgenes/AceView by its positional name 2O499, in Wormbase by its cosmid.number name Y48B6A.8.

The closest human genes, according to BlastP, are the AceView genes BCHE (e=3 10^-94), ACHE (e=7 10^-90).
The closest mouse genes, according to BlastP, are the AceView genes Bche (e=2 10^-92), Acheand2700038N03Rik (e=2 10^-90).
The closest A.thaliana genes, according to BlastP, are the AceView genes AT1G68620 (e=6 10^-05), ATPCME (e=2 10^-04), AT3G02410 (e=5 10^-04), AT1G26120 (e=6 10^-04)

Alternative mRNAs are shown aligned from 5' to 3' on a virtual genome where introns have been shrunk to a minimal length. Exon size is proportional to length, intron height reflects the number of cDNA clones supporting each intron. Superimposed introns of the same color are identical, of different colors are different.
Mouse over the ending of each transcript gives tissues from which the supporting cDNAs were extracted. Click on any transcript to open the specific mRNA page, to see the exact cDNA clone support and eventual SNPs and to get details on tissues, sequences, mRNA and protein annotations. Details on tissue of origin for each intron and exon is available from the intron and exons table. Good predicted proteins are in pink, yellow proteins may be partial or unconvincing, green are uORFs. Proteins supported by a single continuous GenBank accession lead to underlining the name/ending of the variant. Names not underlined result from cDNA concatenation in the coding region and should be experimentally checked.
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