asm-1 encodes a protein similar to human acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) or sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase; the ASM-1 protein has a putative secretory signal peptide at the N-terminus, saposin-like and proline-rich domains and putative N-linked glycosylation sites; asm-1 shows phosphodiesterase activity when expressed in COS-7 cells; while mammalian ASM is detected as both intracellular and secreted forms, asm-1 was detected exclusively in the secreted form; northern blot analysis indicates that asm-1 is expressed at higher levels in the embryo compared with other stages.
Enables sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase activity. Involved in ceramide biosynthetic process and sphingomyelin catabolic process. Located in extracellular region and lysosome. Human ortholog(s) of this gene implicated in Niemann-Pick disease type A and Niemann-Pick disease type B. Is an ortholog of human SMPD1 (sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase 1).
Map position created from combination of previous interpolated map position (based on known location of sequence) and allele information. Therefore this is not a genetic map position based on recombination frequencies or genetic experiments. This was done on advice of the CGC.