Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

PCNA

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen

Also known as: PCNA_HUMAN

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

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P12004
Gene
PCNA
Ensembl
ENSG00000132646
Chromosome
20
Canonical length
261 aa
Protein class
Cancer-related genes, Disease related genes, Human disease related genes, Plasma proteins, Predicted intracellular proteins
Subcellular location
Nucleoplasm
Quaternary structure
Homotrimer

OverviewNCBI Gene

The protein encoded by this gene is found in the nucleus and is a cofactor of DNA polymerase delta. The encoded protein acts as a homotrimer and helps increase the processivity of leading strand synthesis during DNA replication. In response to DNA damage, this protein is ubiquitinated and is involved in the RAD6-dependent DNA repair pathway. Two transcript variants encoding the same protein have been found for this gene. Pseudogenes of this gene have been described on chromosome 4 and on the X chromosome. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

261 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P12004|PCNA
     1  MFEARLVQGS ILKKVLEALK DLINEACWDI SSSGVNLQSM DSSHVSLVQL TLRSEGFDTY
    61  RCDRNLAMGV NLTSMSKILK CAGNEDIITL RAEDNADTLA LVFEAPNQEK VSDYEMKLMD
   121  LDVEQLGIPE QEYSCVVKMP SGEFARICRD LSHIGDAVVI SCAKDGVKFS ASGELGNGNI
   181  KLSQTSNVDK EEEAVTIEMN EPVQLTFALR YLNFFTKATP LSSTVTLSMS ADVPLVVEYK
   241  IADMGHLKYY LAPKIEDEEG S

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against PCNA 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)
0.28
Highest tissue expression
362 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • bone marrow: 362 nTPM
  • thymus: 205 nTPM
  • lymph node: 157 nTPM
  • tonsil: 129 nTPM
  • rectum: 88 nTPM
  • retina: 87 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • oocytes: 493 nCPM
  • erythrocyte progenitors: 361 nCPM
  • late primary spermatocytes: 241 nCPM
  • migrating cytotrophoblasts: 238 nCPM
  • monocyte progenitors: 237 nCPM
  • early spermatids: 233 nCPM

Immune cell

  • T-reg: 48 nTPM
  • memory CD4 T-cell: 46 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 46 nTPM
  • NK-cell: 44 nTPM
  • naive CD4 T-cell: 42 nTPM
  • naive CD8 T-cell: 37 nTPM

Brain region

  • white matter: 32 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 26 nTPM
  • spinal cord: 26 nTPM
  • cerebellum: 25 nTPM
  • medulla oblongata: 24 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 23 nTPM

DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed

Four sources answering four different questions about PCNA.

Disease | AllUniProt

Conditions PCNA is implicated in, by any mechanism.

  • Ataxia-telangiectasia-like disorder 2 (ATLD2) MIM:615919

Disease | GeneticClinVar

1 pathogenic / likely-pathogenic of 33 ClinVar records.

Conditions with pathogenic or likely-pathogenic variants.

  • Ataxia-telangiectasia-like disorder 2

Disease | ImmuneIEDB

Conditions an epitope on PCNA was assayed in.

Disease | AutoantibodyPubMed

Conditions in which antibodies against PCNA are reported. Each links to that disease's full target list.

ReferencesPubMed · IEDB

Publications for PCNA from three distinct lines of evidence, kept separate because they answer different questions: whether antibodies are directed at the protein, whether a B-cell epitope has been mapped on it, and whether a T-cell epitope has. Each is labelled with its source.

Reference: AutoantibodyPubMed

54 publications

Show 20 more of 54 total

Reference: B cellIEDB

2 publications

Sources: PubMed — antigen-level antibody evidence from a custom retrieval. Records matching a controlled set of autoantibody terms (the MeSH descriptors Autoantibodies and Autoantigens, with title and abstract term variants) were obtained through NCBI E-utilities, and their titles and abstracts parsed for constructions that direct an antibody at a named protein rather than for co-occurrence. Captured names were resolved against UniProt nomenclature and each antigen adjudicated individually against the source text. IEDB — curated epitope assays from the Immune Epitope Database (Vita et al., Nucleic Acids Research 2019). Bibliographic records from PubMed and MeSH, U.S. National Library of Medicine; citation metrics from NIH iCite (Hutchins et al., PLoS Biology 2016). Titles link to PubMed; abstracts are not reproduced here. The NLM does not endorse this analysis.

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)
0.26
gnomAD pLI
0.98
gnomAD missense Z
2.47
DepMap mean gene effect
-2.73
DepMap dependency class
pan

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 9% 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

  • DNA clamp superfamily
  • Proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PCNA
  • Proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PCNA, N-terminal
  • Proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PCNA, C-terminal
  • Proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PCNA, conserved site
  • Proliferating cell nuclear antigen, N-terminal domain
  • Proliferating cell nuclear antigen, C-terminal domain

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

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

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

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/PCNA. 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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