DEFA4

Defensin, alpha 4 (DEFA4), also known as neutrophil defensin 4 or HNP4, is a human defensin peptide that is encoded by the DEFA4 gene.^[5][6] HNP4 is expressed in the granules of the neutrophil where it defends the host against bacteria^[7] and viruses.^[8]

DEFA4
Available structures PDB Ortholog search: PDBe RCSB List of PDB id codes 1ZMM
Identifiers
Aliases	DEFA4, DEF4, HNP-4, HP-4, HP4, defensin alpha 4
External IDs	OMIM: 601157; MGI: 3711900; HomoloGene: 48059; GeneCards: DEFA4; OMA:DEFA4 - orthologs
Gene location (Human) Chr. Chromosome 8 (human)[1] Band 8p23.1 Start 6,935,820 bp[1] End 6,938,306 bp[1]
Gene location (Mouse) Chr. Chromosome 8 (mouse)[2] Band 8 A2|8 Start 21,555,054 bp[2] End 21,556,012 bp[2]
RNA expression pattern Bgee Human Mouse (ortholog) Top expressed in bone marrow bone marrow cells monocyte blood granulocyte spleen right lung upper lobe of left lung placenta right lobe of liver Top expressed in ileum jejunum duodenum embryo colon pancreas thymus esophagus liver stomach More reference expression data BioGPS n/a
Gene ontology Molecular function protein homodimerization activity Cellular component Golgi lumen extracellular region azurophil granule extracellular space specific granule lumen Biological process defense response defense response to bacterium neutrophil degranulation innate immune response antimicrobial humoral immune response mediated by antimicrobial peptide T cell chemotaxis antimicrobial humoral response killing of cells of other organism defense response to fungus innate immune response in mucosa antibacterial humoral response defense response to Gram-negative bacterium defense response to Gram-positive bacterium membrane disruption in other organism cellular response to lipopolysaccharide Sources:Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs Species Human Mouse Entrez 1669 100041688 Ensembl ENSG00000164821 ENSG00000285318 ENSMUSG00000061845 UniProt P12838 E9QLQ1 RefSeq (mRNA) NM_001925 NM_001177481 RefSeq (protein) NP_001916 NP_001170952 Location (UCSC) Chr 8: 6.94 – 6.94 Mb Chr 8: 21.56 – 21.56 Mb PubMed search [3] [4]
Wikidata
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Function

Defensins are a peptide family of cytotoxic microbicides involved in innate immunity.^[9] Members of the defensin family are distinguished by a conserved six-cysteine motif. Several human alpha defensin genes including HNP4 are clustered on chromosome 8. DEFA4 differs from other defensin genes by an extra 83-base segment that is apparently the result of a recent duplication within the coding region. HNP4 inhibits corticotropin-stimulated corticosterone production.^[5]