Background：

This gene is a member of the human ARF gene family whose members encode small guanine nucleotide-binding proteins that stimulate the ADP-ribosyltransferase activity of cholera toxin and play a role in vesicular trafficking and as activators of phospholipase D. The gene products include 5 ARF proteins and 11 ARF-like proteins and constitute one family of the RAS superfamily. The ARF proteins are categorized as class I， class II and class III; this gene is a class II member. The members of each class share a common gene organization. The ARF4 gene spans approximately 12kb and contains six exons and five introns. This gene is the most divergent member of the human ARFs. Conflicting map positions at 3p14 or 3p21 have been reported for this gene.