Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

DSG3

Desmoglein-3

Also known as: CDHF6, DSG3_HUMAN

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

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P32926
Gene
DSG3
Ensembl
ENSG00000134757
Chromosome
18
Canonical length
999 aa
Protein class
Disease related genes, Plasma proteins, Predicted membrane proteins
Quaternary structure
Homodimer

OverviewNCBI Gene

This gene encodes a member of the desmoglein family and cadherin cell adhesion molecule superfamily of proteins. Desmogleins are calcium-binding transmembrane glycoprotein components of desmosomes, cell-cell junctions between epithelial, myocardial, and other cell types. The encoded preproprotein is proteolytically processed to generate the mature glycoprotein. This gene is present in a gene cluster with other desmoglein gene family members on chromosome 18. The encoded protein has been identified as the autoantigen of the autoimmune blistering disease pemphigus vulgaris. [provided by RefSeq, Jan 2016]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

999 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P32926|DSG3
     1  MMGLFPRTTG ALAIFVVVIL VHGELRIETK GQYDEEEMTM QQAKRRQKRE WVKFAKPCRE
    61  GEDNSKRNPI AKITSDYQAT QKITYRISGV GIDQPPFGIF VVDKNTGDIN ITAIVDREET
   121  PSFLITCRAL NAQGLDVEKP LILTVKILDI NDNPPVFSQQ IFMGEIEENS ASNSLVMILN
   181  ATDADEPNHL NSKIAFKIVS QEPAGTPMFL LSRNTGEVRT LTNSLDREQA SSYRLVVSGA
   241  DKDGEGLSTQ CECNIKVKDV NDNFPMFRDS QYSARIEENI LSSELLRFQV TDLDEEYTDN
   301  WLAVYFFTSG NEGNWFEIQT DPRTNEGILK VVKALDYEQL QSVKLSIAVK NKAEFHQSVI
   361  SRYRVQSTPV TIQVINVREG IAFRPASKTF TVQKGISSKK LVDYILGTYQ AIDEDTNKAA
   421  SNVKYVMGRN DGGYLMIDSK TAEIKFVKNM NRDSTFIVNK TITAEVLAID EYTGKTSTGT
   481  VYVRVPDFND NCPTAVLEKD AVCSSSPSVV VSARTLNNRY TGPYTFALED QPVKLPAVWS
   541  ITTLNATSAL LRAQEQIPPG VYHISLVLTD SQNNRCEMPR SLTLEVCQCD NRGICGTSYP
   601  TTSPGTRYGR PHSGRLGPAA IGLLLLGLLL LLLAPLLLLT CDCGAGSTGG VTGGFIPVPD
   661  GSEGTIHQWG IEGAHPEDKE ITNICVPPVT ANGADFMESS EVCTNTYARG TAVEGTSGME
   721  MTTKLGAATE SGGAAGFATG TVSGAASGFG AATGVGICSS GQSGTMRTRH STGGTNKDYA
   781  DGAISMNFLD SYFSQKAFAC AEEDDGQEAN DCLLIYDNEG ADATGSPVGS VGCCSFIADD
   841  LDDSFLDSLG PKFKKLAEIS LGVDGEGKEV QPPSKDSGYG IESCGHPIEV QQTGFVKCQT
   901  LSGSQGASAL STSGSVQPAV SIPDPLQHGN YLVTETYSAS GSLVQPSTAG FDPLLTQNVI
   961  VTERVICPIS SVPGNLAGPT QLRGSHTMLC TEDPCSRLI

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against DSG3 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
Cell surface
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
1
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.49
Highest tissue expression
296 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • esophagus: 296 nTPM
  • vagina: 116 nTPM
  • cervix: 93 nTPM
  • tonsil: 68 nTPM
  • salivary gland: 38 nTPM
  • skin: 38 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • esophageal apical cells: 4,224 nCPM
  • esophageal suprabasal cells: 3,206 nCPM
  • ocular epithelial cells: 2,845 nCPM
  • suprabasal keratinocytes: 2,020 nCPM
  • esophageal basal cells: 1,626 nCPM
  • basal keratinocytes: 1,105 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 8.1 nTPM
  • neutrophil: 0.1 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0 nTPM

Brain region

  • white matter: 0.9 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 0.8 nTPM
  • pons: 0.8 nTPM
  • thalamus: 0.8 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 0.7 nTPM
  • cerebellum: 0.7 nTPM

DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed

Four sources answering four different questions about DSG3.

Disease | AllUniProt

Conditions DSG3 is implicated in, by any mechanism.

  • Blistering, acantholytic, of oral and laryngeal mucosa (ABOLM) MIM:619226

Disease | GeneticClinVar

1 pathogenic / likely-pathogenic of 202 ClinVar records.

Conditions with pathogenic or likely-pathogenic variants.

  • Blistering, acantholytic, of oral and laryngeal mucosa

Disease | ImmuneIEDB

Conditions an epitope on DSG3 was assayed in.

Disease | AutoantibodyPubMed

Conditions in which antibodies against DSG3 are reported. Each links to that disease's full target list.

Showing 5 of 8 — disease pages carrying at least 10 antigens.

ReferencesPubMed · IEDB

Publications for DSG3 from three distinct lines of evidence, kept separate because they answer different questions: whether antibodies are directed at the protein, whether a B-cell epitope has been mapped on it, and whether a T-cell epitope has. Each is labelled with its source.

Reference: AutoantibodyPubMed

427 publications

Show 20 more of 427 total

Reference: B cellIEDB

5 publications

Reference: T cellIEDB

10 publications

Show 5 more

Sources: PubMed — antigen-level antibody evidence from a custom retrieval. Records matching a controlled set of autoantibody terms (the MeSH descriptors Autoantibodies and Autoantigens, with title and abstract term variants) were obtained through NCBI E-utilities, and their titles and abstracts parsed for constructions that direct an antibody at a named protein rather than for co-occurrence. Captured names were resolved against UniProt nomenclature and each antigen adjudicated individually against the source text. IEDB — curated epitope assays from the Immune Epitope Database (Vita et al., Nucleic Acids Research 2019). Bibliographic records from PubMed and MeSH, U.S. National Library of Medicine; citation metrics from NIH iCite (Hutchins et al., PLoS Biology 2016). Titles link to PubMed; abstracts are not reproduced here. The NLM does not endorse this analysis.

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)
1.09
gnomAD pLI
0
gnomAD missense Z
0.46
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.04
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

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

Protein binding partners of DSG3 in the human serome: UniProt-annotated complex subunits plus reported interactors. Each links to its own Seroatlas record.

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads DSG3 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against DSG3 could matter depends on whether native DSG3 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

DSG3 is annotated at the cell surface, where native DSG3 is exposed to circulating antibodies and is a prime autoantibody target that could block, deplete, or overstimulate it.

Source-annotated serology context

The source annotations explicitly mention antibody, autoantibody, autoantigen, or autoimmune context. This is biological context, not study-specific reactivity.

  • The encoded protein has been identified as the autoantigen of the autoimmune blistering disease pemphigus vulgaris.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/DSG3. 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).

© 2026 · Seroatlas, Discover Oregon LLC · Terms of use

Loading the interactive Seroatlas protein explorer...