Fam241a, a member of the protein family FAM241, encodes a protein of 132 amino acid residues and contains a conserved domain of unknown function (DUF4605; pfam15378) [1]. Its molecular function remains to be determined, but it has been associated with potential roles in certain biological processes and diseases.

Experimental knockout of mouse Fam241a did not generate a visible phenotype, and knockout of both Fam241A and Fam241B did not exacerbate the phenotype of FIG4 null mice. However, RNAseq of brain RNA from double knockout mice detected reduced expression of several genes including Arke1e1 and RnaseL [1]. In stomach adenocarcinoma, Fam241A was screened as one of the five prognostic genes related to Helicobacter pylori infection and was used to establish a riskscore model with good robustness [2]. In lung cancer research, Fam241A was part of a tumor suppressive lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory axis (ANXA2P1/miR-20b-5p/FAM241A (C4orf32)), which was identified from omics data analysis of Cr(VI)-transformed cells and was found to have diagnostic and prognosis prediction values [3].

In summary, although knockout mouse models did not show a distinct visible phenotype for Fam241a, associated gene expression changes in double knockout mice hint at its underlying role in gene regulation. Its identification in prognostic gene models for stomach adenocarcinoma and in a tumor-suppressive regulatory axis in lung cancer suggest potential functions in these disease areas, highlighting the importance of Fam241a in disease-related research.

References:

1. Doctrove, Quinlan, Park, Young, Calame, Daniel G, Lenk, Guy M, Meisler, Miriam H. 2024. Protein family FAM241 in human and mouse. In Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society, 36, 83-92. doi:10.1007/s00335-024-10096-7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39715844/

2. Peng, Jing, Yan, Qi, Pei, Wennan, Zhou, Li, Li, Ruoqing. 2025. A Prognostic Riskscore Model Related to Helicobacter pylori Infection in Stomach Adenocarcinoma. In International journal of genomics, 2025, 5554610. doi:10.1155/ijog/5554610. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39886652/

3. Sweef, Osama, Yang, Chengfeng, Wang, Zhishan. 2022. The Oncogenic and Tumor Suppressive Long Non-Coding RNA-microRNA-Messenger RNA Regulatory Axes Identified by Analyzing Multiple Platform Omics Data from Cr(VI)-Transformed Cells and Their Implications in Lung Cancer. In Biomedicines, 10, . doi:10.3390/biomedicines10102334. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36289596/