CES3

Chr 16

carboxylesterase 3

Also known as: ES31

NCBI Gene: 23491 ENSG00000172828 UniProt: Q6UWW8

This gene encodes a member of the carboxylesterase large family. The family members are responsible for the hydrolysis or transesterification of various xenobiotics, such as cocaine and heroin, and endogenous substrates with ester, thioester, or amide bonds. They may participate in fatty acyl and cholesterol ester metabolism, and may play a role in the blood-brain barrier system. This gene is expressed in several tissues, particularly in colon, trachea and in brain, and the protein participates in colon and neural drug metabolism. Multiple alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been reported, but the biological validity and/or full-length nature of some variants have not been determined.[provided by RefSeq, Jun 2010]

Active trials

Pathogenic / LP

ClinVar variants

Pubs (1 yr)

0.5

Missense Z

1.15

LOEUF

Clinical Summary— CES3

⚡

Population Constraint (gnomAD)

Low constraint (pLI 0.00) — loss-of-function variants are relatively tolerated in the population.

Population Genetics & Constraint

gnomAD v4 — loss-of-function & missense intolerance

gnomAD

Tolerant — LoF & missense variants common in population

LoF Constraint?LOEUF (Loss-of-function Observed/Expected Upper bound Fraction) is the upper bound of the 90% CI for LoF OE — the preferred gnomAD v4 metric. Lower = more intolerant to LoF. LOEUF < 0.35 = highly constrained.

1.15LOEUF

pLI 0.000

Z-score 0.97

OE 0.80 (0.56–1.15)

Tolerant

Highly tolerant — LoF variants common in population

Missense Constraint?Missense Z-score: standard deviations fewer missense variants observed vs. expected. Z > 3.09 (p < 0.001) = gene does not tolerate missense variation. OE missense < 0.6 is also considered constrained.

0.53Z-score

OE missense 0.92 (0.84–1.01)

319 obs / 346.6 exp

Tolerant

Mild missense constraint

Observed / Expected Ratios?Shaded band = 90% confidence interval. Vertical tick = point estimate. Grey threshold line = gnomAD constraint cutoff for that variant class.

LoF OE?Ratio of observed to expected LoF variants. Upper CI bound (LOEUF) ≤ 0.35 = strong LoF constraint signal.0.80 (0.56–1.15)

0≤0.351.4

Missense OE?Ratio of observed to expected missense variants. OE ≤ 0.6 = fewer missense variants than expected by chance.0.92 (0.84–1.01)

0≤0.61.4

Synonymous OE?Control metric — synonymous variants are largely neutral and expected near OE = 1.0. Significant deviation may indicate annotation issues.1.00

0≤1.21.6

LoF obs/exp: 21 / 26.4Missense obs/exp: 319 / 346.6Syn Z: 0.02

0.6648th %ile

GOF

0.6639th %ile

LOF

0.2484th %ile

This gene has evidence for multiple mechanisms of pathogenicity (dominant-negative and gain-of-function). Both the Badonyi & Marsh prediction and the broader genomic evidence point to dominant-negative as the predominant mechanism. Different variants in this gene may act through different mechanisms — interpret in context of the specific variant.

DNprediction above median

GOFprediction above median

Note: In-silico variant effect predictors (SIFT, PolyPhen, REVEL, CADD) may underestimate pathogenicity of missense variants in genes with GOF or DN mechanisms. Consider functional evidence and clinical context.

Predictions from Badonyi M, Marsh JA. PLoS ONE. 2024;19(8):e0307312.