ABSTRACT
As a member of PARP superfamily, PARP3 shares a high homology with PARP1 and PARP2, which are all DNA-dependent enzymes that are catalytically activated by DNA strand breaks.Compared to PARP1 and PARP2, PARP3 exerted some special properties in tissue expression pattern and biological function.The evidence has shown that PARP3 could be activated by DNA double strand breaks and special DNA single strand breaks and synthesize mono(ADP-ribose) (MAR) covalently attached to target proteins including itself.PARP3 plays an important role in DNA double strand breaks, DNA single strand breaks, activation of PARP1 and development of nervous system.It has been reported that PARP3 is associated with glioma and breast cancers.In this review, PARP3 structure, activation mechanism, biological function and its relationship with diseases will be presented.