Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Nov 11;291(46):24036-24040.
doi: 10.1074/jbc.M116.756155. Epub 2016 Sep 19.

Selenoprotein Gene Nomenclature

Vadim N Gladyshev  1   2 , Elias S Arnér  3 , Marla J Berry  4 , Regina Brigelius-Flohé  5 , Elspeth A Bruford  6 , Raymond F Burk  7 , Bradley A Carlson  8 , Sergi Castellano  9 , Laurent Chavatte  10 , Marcus Conrad  11 , Paul R Copeland  12 , Alan M Diamond  13 , Donna M Driscoll  14 , Ana Ferreiro  15   16 , Leopold Flohé  17   18 , Fiona R Green  19 , Roderic Guigó  20   21 , Diane E Handy  22 , Dolph L Hatfield  8 , John Hesketh  23   24   25 , Peter R Hoffmann  4 , Arne Holmgren  3 , Robert J Hondal  26 , Michael T Howard  27 , Kaixun Huang  28 , Hwa-Young Kim  29 , Ick Young Kim  30 , Josef Köhrle  31 , Alain Krol  32 , Gregory V Kryukov  33 , Byeong Jae Lee  34 , Byung Cheon Lee  30 , Xin Gen Lei  35 , Qiong Liu  36 , Alain Lescure  32   37 , Alexei V Lobanov  38 , Joseph Loscalzo  39 , Matilde Maiorino  18 , Marco Mariotti  38 , K Sandeep Prabhu  40 , Margaret P Rayman  41 , Sharon Rozovsky  42 , Gustavo Salinas  43 , Edward E Schmidt  44 , Lutz Schomburg  31 , Ulrich Schweizer  45 , Miljan Simonović  46 , Roger A Sunde  47 , Petra A Tsuji  48 , Susan Tweedie  6 , Fulvio Ursini  18 , Philip D Whanger  49 , Yan Zhang  36
Affiliations

Selenoprotein Gene Nomenclature

Vadim N Gladyshev et al. J Biol Chem. .

Abstract

The human genome contains 25 genes coding for selenocysteine-containing proteins (selenoproteins). These proteins are involved in a variety of functions, most notably redox homeostasis. Selenoprotein enzymes with known functions are designated according to these functions: TXNRD1, TXNRD2, and TXNRD3 (thioredoxin reductases), GPX1, GPX2, GPX3, GPX4, and GPX6 (glutathione peroxidases), DIO1, DIO2, and DIO3 (iodothyronine deiodinases), MSRB1 (methionine sulfoxide reductase B1), and SEPHS2 (selenophosphate synthetase 2). Selenoproteins without known functions have traditionally been denoted by SEL or SEP symbols. However, these symbols are sometimes ambiguous and conflict with the approved nomenclature for several other genes. Therefore, there is a need to implement a rational and coherent nomenclature system for selenoprotein-encoding genes. Our solution is to use the root symbol SELENO followed by a letter. This nomenclature applies to SELENOF (selenoprotein F, the 15-kDa selenoprotein, SEP15), SELENOH (selenoprotein H, SELH, C11orf31), SELENOI (selenoprotein I, SELI, EPT1), SELENOK (selenoprotein K, SELK), SELENOM (selenoprotein M, SELM), SELENON (selenoprotein N, SEPN1, SELN), SELENOO (selenoprotein O, SELO), SELENOP (selenoprotein P, SeP, SEPP1, SELP), SELENOS (selenoprotein S, SELS, SEPS1, VIMP), SELENOT (selenoprotein T, SELT), SELENOV (selenoprotein V, SELV), and SELENOW (selenoprotein W, SELW, SEPW1). This system, approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee, also resolves conflicting, missing, and ambiguous designations for selenoprotein genes and is applicable to selenoproteins across vertebrates.

Keywords: function; gene name; genomics; nomenclature; selenium; selenocysteine; selenoprotein; structure-function.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Kryukov G. V., Castellano S., Novoselov S. V., Lobanov A. V., Zehtab O., Guigó R., and Gladyshev V. N. (2003) Characterization of mammalian selenoproteomes. Science 300, 1439–1443 - PubMed
    1. Bösl M. R., Takaku K., Oshima M., Nishimura S., and Taketo M. M. (1997) Early embryonic lethality caused by targeted disruption of the mouse selenocysteine tRNA gene (Trsp). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 94, 5531–5534 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schweizer U., and Fradejas-Villar N. (July 29, 2016) Why 21? the significance of selenoproteins for human health revealed by inborn errors of metabolism. FASEB J., fj201600414 - PubMed
    1. Fomenko D. E., Xing W., Adair B. M., Thomas D. J., and Gladyshev V. N. (2007) High-throughput identification of catalytic redox-active cysteine residues. Science 315, 387–389 - PubMed
    1. Burk R. F., and Hill K. E. (2015) Regulation of selenium metabolism and transport. Annu. Rev. Nutr. 35, 109–134 - PubMed