Atlastin 2 (ATL2)

By positional cloning, Zhao et al. (2001) demonstrated that a form of autosomal dominant hereditary spastic paraplegia with early onset (SPG3A), before the age of 10 years and usually before the age of 5, is caused by mutation in a GTPase gene. The gene was found to have no homology to genes that cause other forms of hereditary spastic paraplegia. It does show significant homology to guanylate binding protein-1 (GBP1; ), a member of the dynamin family of large GTPases.

By searching databases for sequences similar to atlastin-1 (SPG3A), Zhu et al. (2003) identified ARL6IP2, which they called atlastin-2. The deduced 579-amino acid protein contains GTP-binding motifs in its N-terminal half and 2 transmembrane domains in its C-terminal half.