Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

MORC1

MORC family CW-type zinc finger protein 1

Also known as: CT33, MORC, MORC1_HUMAN, ZCW6

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

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
Q86VD1
Gene
MORC1
Ensembl
ENSG00000114487
Chromosome
3
Canonical length
984 aa
Protein class
Predicted intracellular proteins

OverviewNCBI Gene

This gene encodes the human homolog of mouse morc and like the mouse protein it is testis-specific. Mouse studies support a testis-specific function since only male knockout mice are infertile; infertility is the only apparent defect. These studies further support a role for this protein early in spermatogenesis, possibly by affecting entry into apoptosis because testis from knockout mice show greatly increased numbers of apoptotic cells. [provided by RefSeq, Jan 2009]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

984 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>Q86VD1|MORC1
     1  MDDRYPALQR AQLRLDFIHA NSTTHSFLFG ALAELLDNAR DAGAERLDVF SVDNEKLQGG
    61  FMLCFLDDGC GMSPEEASDI IYFGRSKKRL STLKFIGQYG NGLKSGSMRI GKDFILFTKK
   121  EETMTCVFFS QTFCEEESLS EVVVPMPSWL IRTRESVTDD PQKFAMELSI IYKYSPFKTE
   181  AELMQQFDVI YGKCGTLLVI YNLKLLLNGE PELDVKTDKE DILMAGALED FPARWSFRAY
   241  TSVLYFNPWM RIFIQAKRVK TKHLCYCLYR PRKYLYVTSS FKGAFKDEVK KAEEAVKIAE
   301  SILKEAQIKV NQCDRTSLSS AKDVLQRALE DVEAKQKNLK EKQRELKTAR TLSLFYGVNV
   361  ENRSQAGMFI YSNNRLIKMH EKVGSQLKLK SLLGAGVVGI VNIPLEVMEP SHNKQEFLNV
   421  QEYNHLLKVM GQYLVQYCKD TGINNRNLTL FCNEFGYQND IDVEKPLNSF QYQRRQAMGI
   481  PFIIQCDLCL KWRVLPSSTN YQEKEFFDIW ICANNPNRLE NSCHQVECLP SIPLGTMSTI
   541  SPSKNEKEKQ LRESVIKYQN RLAEQQPQPQ FIPVDEITVT STCLTSAHKE NTKTQKIRLL
   601  GDDLKHESLS SFELSASRRG QKRNIEETDS DVEYISETKI MKKSMEEKMN SQQQRIPVAL
   661  PENVKLAERS QRSQIANITT VWRAQPTEGC LKNAQAASWE MKRKQSLNFV EECKVLTEDE
   721  NTSDSDIILV SDKSNTDVSL KQEKKEIPLL NQEKQELCND VLAMKRSSSL PSWKSLLNVP
   781  MEDVNLSSGH IARVSVSGSC KVASSPASSQ STPVKETVRK LKSKLREILL YFFPEHQLPS
   841  ELEEPALSCE LEQCPEQMNK KLKMCFNQIQ NTYMVQYEKK IKRKLQSIIY DSNTRGIHNE
   901  ISLGQCENKR KISEDKLKNL RIKLALLLQK LQLGGPEGDL EQTDTYLEAL LKEDNLLFQN
   961  NLNKVTIDAR HRLPLEKNEK TSEN

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against MORC1 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
Intracellular
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.43
Highest tissue expression
15 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • testis: 15 nTPM
  • epididymis: 0.3 nTPM
  • hippocampal formation: 0.2 nTPM
  • pituitary gland: 0.2 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 0.1 nTPM
  • duodenum: 0.1 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • hematopoietic stem cells: 248 nCPM
  • innate lymphoid cells: 201 nCPM
  • thymocytes: 128 nCPM
  • early spermatids: 122 nCPM
  • early primary spermatocytes: 95 nCPM
  • thyrotrophs: 85 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 0 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 0 nTPM

Brain region

  • hippocampal formation: 2 nTPM
  • medulla oblongata: 0.8 nTPM
  • pons: 0.6 nTPM
  • white matter: 0.6 nTPM
  • hypothalamus: 0.5 nTPM
  • spinal cord: 0.5 nTPM

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)
0.51
gnomAD pLI
0
gnomAD missense Z
1.45
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.04
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 2% 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

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads MORC1 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against MORC1 could matter depends on whether native MORC1 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

MORC1 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 MORC1 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/MORC1. 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).

© 2026 · Seroatlas, Discover Oregon LLC · Terms of use

Loading the interactive Seroatlas protein explorer...