This gene is a member of the human ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF) gene family. These genes 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 6 ARF proteins and 11 ARF-like proteins and constitute 1 family of the RAS superfamily. The ARF proteins are categorized as class I (ARF1, ARF2,and ARF3), class II (ARF4 and ARF5) and class III (ARF6). The members of each class share a common gene organization. [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2010].