This gene is a member of the sauvagine/corticotropin-releasing factor/urotensin I family. It is structurally related to the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) gene and the encoded product is an endogenous ligand for CRF type 2 receptors. In the brain it may be responsible for the effects of stress on appetite. In spite of the gene family name similarity, the product of this gene has no sequence similarity to urotensin II. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008].
El Ouaamari, Zhou, Liew, Shirakawa, Dirice, Gedeon, Kahraman, De Jesus, Bhatt, Kim, Clauss, Camp, Smith, Qian, Kulkarni: "Compensatory Islet Response to Insulin Resistance Revealed by Quantitative Proteomics." in: Journal of proteome research, Vol. 14, Issue 8, pp. 3111-3122, (2016) (PubMed).
Hua, Shang, Martinez, Freeby, Gallagher, Ludwig, Deng, Greenberg, Leduc, Chung, Goland, Leibel, Egli: "iPSC-derived β cells model diabetes due to glucokinase deficiency." in: The Journal of clinical investigation, Vol. 123, Issue 7, pp. 3146-53, (2013) (PubMed).
Jiang, Michal, Williams, Daniels, Kunej: "Cross species association examination of UCN3 and CRHR2 as potential pharmacological targets for antiobesity drugs." in: PLoS ONE, Vol. 1, pp. e80, (2007) (PubMed).