Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

MCU

Calcium uniporter protein, mitochondrial

Also known as: C10orf42, CCDC109A, FLJ46135, MCU_HUMAN

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
Q8NE86
Gene
MCU
Ensembl
ENSG00000156026
Chromosome
10
Canonical length
351 aa
Protein class
Predicted intracellular proteins, Predicted membrane proteins
Subcellular location
Mitochondria
Quaternary structure
Homotetramer

OverviewNCBI Gene

Enables calcium channel activity; identical protein binding activity; and uniporter activity. Involved in several processes, including cellular response to calcium ion starvation; positive regulation of mitochondrial calcium ion concentration; and positive regulation of mitochondrial fission. Located in mitochondrion. Part of uniplex complex. Is active in mitochondrial inner membrane. [provided by Alliance of Genome Resources, Jul 2025]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

351 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>Q8NE86|MCU
     1  MAAAAGRSLL LLLSSRGGGG GGAGGCGALT AGCFPGLGVS RHRQQQHHRT VHQRIASWQN
    61  LGAVYCSTVV PSDDVTVVYQ NGLPVISVRL PSRRERCQFT LKPISDSVGV FLRQLQEEDR
   121  GIDRVAIYSP DGVRVAASTG IDLLLLDDFK LVINDLTYHV RPPKRDLLSH ENAATLNDVK
   181  TLVQQLYTTL CIEQHQLNKE RELIERLEDL KEQLAPLEKV RIEISRKAEK RTTLVLWGGL
   241  AYMATQFGIL ARLTWWEYSW DIMEPVTYFI TYGSAMAMYA YFVMTRQEYV YPEARDRQYL
   301  LFFHKGAKKS RFDLEKYNQL KDAIAQAEMD LKRLRDPLQV HLPLRQIGEK D

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against MCU can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Other membrane
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
2
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.46
Highest tissue expression
51 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • tongue: 51 nTPM
  • stomach: 41 nTPM
  • skeletal muscle: 40 nTPM
  • rectum: 30 nTPM
  • colon: 27 nTPM
  • duodenum: 27 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • neutrophil progenitors: 1,471 nCPM
  • myonuclei: 1,131 nCPM
  • foveolar cells: 945 nCPM
  • endometrial ciliated cells: 610 nCPM
  • ocular epithelial cells: 605 nCPM
  • transitional alveolar cells: 506 nCPM

Immune cell

  • eosinophil: 19 nTPM
  • non-classical monocyte: 9 nTPM
  • neutrophil: 8.8 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 7.4 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 6.7 nTPM
  • myeloid DC: 5.8 nTPM

Brain region

  • cerebellum: 22 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 14 nTPM
  • hippocampal formation: 8.8 nTPM
  • medulla oblongata: 7.5 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 7.4 nTPM
  • pons: 7.3 nTPM

DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed

Four sources answering four different questions about MCU.

Disease | ImmuneIEDB

Conditions an epitope on MCU was assayed in.

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
0.41
gnomAD pLI
0.83
gnomAD missense Z
1.83
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.08
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 4% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

Protein binding partners of MCU in the human serome: UniProt-annotated complex subunits plus reported interactors. Each links to its own Seroatlas record.

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads MCU as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against MCU could matter depends on whether native MCU is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

MCU is annotated as predominantly intracellular. Intracellular proteins are common autoantibody markers, becoming visible to the immune system after cell injury or altered processing, but are usually markers of disease rather than direct drivers.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label MCU as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/MCU. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

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