An uncharacterized gene, C7orf26, identified from an autosomal dominant ocular disease functions in mRNA splicing

An uncharacterized gene, C7orf26 was expected to function with the integrator complex in mRNA splicing. To address the involvement of mRNA splicing, we performed microarray analysis of HeLa/C7orf26 siRNA cells and HeLa/non-specific (NS) and identified 700 transcripts that were downregulated by 50% or more in C7orf26 siRNA-treated HeLa cells. Gene set enrichment analysis showed that genes tagged with ‘alternative splicing’ or ‘splice variant’ occupy a large fraction of the downregulated genes. The C7orf26 expression in HeLa cell was knock-downed by siRNA-treated culture for 72H. The function of C7orf26 was investigated by enriched GO analysis of differentially expressed genes in HeLa cells induced by C7orf26 siRNA compared with control siRNA using microarray.