Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

DEF8

Differentially expressed in FDCP 8 homolog

Also known as: DEFI8_HUMAN, FLJ20186

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
Q6ZN54
Gene
DEF8
Ensembl
ENSG00000140995
Chromosome
16
Canonical length
512 aa
Protein class
Predicted intracellular proteins
Subcellular location
Nucleoplasm,Cytosol

OverviewNCBI Gene

Predicted to enable zinc ion binding activity. Predicted to be involved in lysosome localization; positive regulation of bone resorption; and positive regulation of ruffle assembly. [provided by Alliance of Genome Resources, Jul 2025]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

512 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>Q6ZN54|DEF8
     1  MAILSLRAPG PWQAMQVWAD RTLLTPHTGV TSQVLGVAAA VMTPLPGGHA AGRTREARWD
    61  AMEYDEKLAR FRQAHLNPFN KQSGPRQHEQ GPGEEVPDVT PEEALPELPP GEPEFRCPER
   121  VMDLGLSEDH FSRPVGLFLA SDVQQLRQAI EECKQVILEL PEQSEKQKDA VVRLIHLRLK
   181  LQELKDPNED EPNIRVLLEH RFYKEKSKSV KQTCDKCNTI IWGLIQTWYT CTGCYYRCHS
   241  KCLNLISKPC VSSKVSHQAE YELNICPETG LDSQDYRCAE CRAPISLRGV PSEARQCDYT
   301  GQYYCSHCHW NDLAVIPARV VHNWDFEPRK VSRCSMRYLA LMVSRPVLRL REINPLLFSY
   361  VEELVEIRKL RQDILLMKPY FITCREAMEA RLLLQLQDRQ HFVENDEMYS VQDLLDVHAG
   421  RLGCSLTEIH TLFAKHIKLD CERCQAKGFV CELCREGDVL FPFDSHTSVC ADCSAVFHRD
   481  CYYDNSTTCP KCARLSLRKQ SLFQEPGPDV EA

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against DEF8 can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Unknown
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.41
Highest tissue expression
100 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • cerebellum: 100 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 72 nTPM
  • lymph node: 68 nTPM
  • midbrain: 63 nTPM
  • amygdala: 59 nTPM
  • spinal cord: 58 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • esophageal apical cells: 200 nCPM
  • esophageal suprabasal cells: 96 nCPM
  • hofbauer cells: 82 nCPM
  • neutrophils: 66 nCPM
  • hepatic stellate cells: 65 nCPM
  • extravillous trophoblasts: 59 nCPM

Immune cell

  • eosinophil: 81 nTPM
  • plasmacytoid DC: 69 nTPM
  • naive B-cell: 61 nTPM
  • neutrophil: 53 nTPM
  • memory B-cell: 50 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 39 nTPM

Brain region

  • medulla oblongata: 125 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 116 nTPM
  • pons: 114 nTPM
  • midbrain: 108 nTPM
  • thalamus: 105 nTPM
  • white matter: 101 nTPM

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
0.57
gnomAD pLI
0
gnomAD missense Z
1.02
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.15
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 4% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads DEF8 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against DEF8 could matter depends on whether native DEF8 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

DEF8 is annotated as predominantly intracellular. Intracellular proteins are common autoantibody markers, becoming visible to the immune system after cell injury or altered processing, but are usually markers of disease rather than direct drivers.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label DEF8 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/DEF8. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

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