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On the basis of the detection of expressed sequence tag (‘EST’) similar to the rat N-acetylgalactosamine α2,6-sialyltransferase (ST6GalNAc) III cDNA, we have identified a novel member of the human ST6GalNAc family. We have isolated a cDNA clone containing an open reading frame that codes for a type II membrane protein of 302 amino acids with a seven-amino-acid cytoplasmic domain, an 18-amino-acid transmembrane domain and the smallest described catalytic domain of 277 amino acids. This predicted sialyltransferase sequence is similar to the rat ST6GalNAc III (46.6%), but was found to be even more similar to the recently reported mouse ST6GalNAc IV (88.1%) on the basis of amino acid sequence identity. Northern-blot analysis showed that the newly identified gene is expressed constitutively in various adult human tissues as a 2.2kb transcript, but was also found to be expressed at lower levels in …