Alternative titles; symbols
HGNC Approved Gene Symbol: PANCR
Cytogenetic location: 4q25 Genomic coordinates (GRCh38): 4:110,595,513-110,615,458 (from NCBI)
Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), such as PANCR, are transcripts of over 200 nucleotides that are 5-prime capped and 3-prime polyadenylated but do not code for functional proteins (Gore-Panter et al., 2016).
By sequencing RNAs expressed in the human left atrium, Gore-Panter et al. (2016) identified PANCR splice variants. The major variant contains the first and last exons of the PANCR gene and has a short ORF encoding a 35-residue peptide. Minor PANCR splice variants use internal exons. Quantitative RT-PCR of 33 human tissues revealed highest PANCR expression in left atrium, with much lower expression in eye, followed by fetal and adult heart, placenta, and small intestine. Little to no expression was detected in other tissues examined. The short ORF and major PANCR transcript are well conserved in chimpanzee, but not in mouse.
PITX2 (601542) splice variant c (PITX2c) is specifically expressed in left atrium, but not right atrium. Using quantitative RT-PCR, Gore-Panter et al. (2016) found that differentiation of H9 human embryonic stem cells into cardiomyocytes induced expression of both PANCR and PITX2c. Both transcripts were expressed in cytoplasm of fractionated H9 cardiomyocytes. Knockdown of PANCR via short interfering RNA reduced expression of PITX2c, but knockdown of PITX2c had no effect on expression of PANCR. Expression profiling revealed overlap in the genes regulated by PANCR or PITX2c knockdown, suggesting that the major role of PANCR is to regulate PITX2c.
Gore-Panter et al. (2016) determined that the PANCR gene contains 5 exons and spans approximately 20 kb. The 3-prime exon is composed of a long terminal repeat in the ERVL-MaLR retrotransposon family.
By genomic sequence analysis, Gore-Panter et al. (2016) mapped the PANCR gene to chromosome 4q25, where it lies approximately 2 kb downstream of the PITX2 gene in the same orientation.
Gore-Panter, S. R., Hsu, J., Barnard, J., Moravec, C. S., Van Wagoner, D. R., Chung, M. K., Smith, J. D. PANCR, the PITX2 adjacent noncoding RNA, is expressed in human left atria and regulates PITX2c expression. Circ. Arrhythm. Electrophysiol. 9: e003197, 2016. Note: Electronic Article. [PubMed: 26783232] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCEP.115.003197]