To investigate the physiological function of the VAMP3 vesicle SNARE (v-SNARE) isoform in the regulation of GLUT4 vesicle trafficking, we generated homozygotic VAMP3 null mice by targeted gene disruption. The VAMP3 null mice had typical growth rate and weight gain, with normal maintenance of fasting serum glucose and insulin levels. Analysis of glucose disposal and insulin sensitivity demonstrated normal insulin and glucose tolerance, with no evidence for insulin resistance. Insulin stimulation of glucose uptake in isolated primary adipocytes was essentially the same for the wild-type and VAMP3 null mice. Similarly, insulin-, hypoxia-, and exercise-stimulated glucose uptake in isolated skeletal muscle did not differ significantly. In addition, other general membrane trafficking events including phagocytosis, pinocytosis, and transferrin receptor recycling were also found to be unaffected in the VAMP3 null mice. Taken together, these data demonstrate that VAMP3 function is not necessary for either regulated GLUT4 translocation or general constitutive membrane recycling.Insulin increases glucose uptake in adipose and striated muscle tissues primarily by recruiting the GLUT4 glucose transporter protein to the cell surface (37). In the basal noninsulin-stimulated state, the majority of GLUT4 resides in one or more intracellular compartments (44,45). Upon addition of insulin, the signaling cascade triggered by the insulin receptor leads to rapid translocation of the GLUT4 transporter to the plasma membrane, thereby increasing the number of transporters at the cell surface and the rate of glucose uptake (12,27,38,41).The process of GLUT4 translocation shares important features with the exocytosis of synaptic vesicles during neurotransmitter release. For example, the plasma membrane docking and fusion of GLUT4 vesicles appears to require the t-SNARE protein isoforms syntaxin 4 and SNAP23 (9,37,48). GLUT4 vesicles contain the v-SNARE-interacting partners VAMP2 and VAMP3, both of which translocate to the plasma membrane in parallel with GLUT4 (33,47). Recent studies using various toxins and endosomal ablation techniques have indicated that VAMP2 is the predominant v-SNARE responsible for insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation in cultured 3T3-L1 adipocytes and in the L6 muscle cell line (9,32,33,40). In contrast, guanosine-5Ј-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (GTP␥S)-stimulated GLUT4 translocation was found to be dependent on VAMP3, thereby suggesting the presence of two independently regulated pools of GLUT4 storage compartments (35). In this regard, skeletal muscle has also been shown to contain two pools of GLUT4 vesicles, one that responds to insulin and another that is responsive to exercise and contraction (1,11,39).In addition, the skeletal muscle exercise-contraction subpopulation utilizes a signaling pathway independent of the phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase (30, 31, 50). Similarly, GTP␥S stimulation in adipocytes is also independent of the PI 3-kinase, suggesting that the GTP␥S and exercise-contraction pathways may util...