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FLCN

Chr 17p11.2

folliculin

Aliases:
BHD, MGC17998, MGC23445, DENND8B
MANE:
ENST00000285071.9

Annotations refreshed 1 month ago.

Predicted protein structure

Clinical relevance (Genomics England PanelApp)

Diagnostic Grade (Green)

  • Adult solid tumours cancer susceptibility

    MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, imprinted status unknown
  • Adult solid tumours for rare disease

    MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, imprinted status unknown
  • Cystic kidney disease

    MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted
  • Inherited renal cancer

    MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted
  • Multiple monogenic benign skin tumours

    MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted
  • Pneumothorax - familial

    MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted
  • Renal cancer pertinent cancer susceptibility

    MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted
  • Thoracic aortic aneurysm or dissection

    MONOALLELIC, autosomal or pseudoautosomal, NOT imprinted

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Disease associations (Open Targets)

  • Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome 1

    0.80
  • familial spontaneous pneumothorax

    0.78
  • Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome

    0.78
  • pneumothorax

    0.69
  • Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome

    0.68
  • Spontaneous pneumothorax

    0.59
  • Inherited cancer-predisposing syndrome

    0.57
  • hereditary neoplastic syndrome

    0.57
  • nonpapillary renal cell carcinoma

    0.57
  • colorectal cancer

    0.56

Score is the Open Targets composite evidence score (0-1). Higher = stronger gene-disease association.

Protein function (UniProt)

Folliculin

Multi-functional protein, involved in both the cellular response to amino acid availability and in the regulation of glycolysis (PubMed:17028174, PubMed:18663353, PubMed:21209915, PubMed:24081491, PubMed:24095279, PubMed:31672913, PubMed:31704029, PubMed:32612235, PubMed:34381247, PubMed:36103527, PubMed:37079666). GTPase-activating protein that plays a key role in the cellular response to amino acid availability through regulation of the non-canonical mTORC1 signaling cascade controlling the MiT/TFE factors TFEB and TFE3 (PubMed:17028174, PubMed:18663353, PubMed:21209915, PubMed:24081491, PubMed:24095279, PubMed:24448649, PubMed:31672913, PubMed:31704029, PubMed:32612235, PubMed:36103527, PubMed:37079666). Activates mTORC1 by acting as a GTPase-activating protein: specifically stimulates GTP hydrolysis by RagC/RRAGC or RagD/RRAGD, promoting the conversion to the GDP-bound state of RagC/RRAGC or RagD/RRAGD, and thereby activating the kinase activity of mTORC1 (PubMed:24095279, PubMed:31672913, PubMed:31704029, PubMed:32612235, PubMed:37079666). The GTPase-activating activity is inhibited during starvation and activated in presence of nutrients (PubMed:31672913, PubMed:32612235). Acts as a key component for non-canonical mTORC1-dependent control of the MiT/TFE factors TFEB and TFE3, while it is not involved in mTORC1-dependent phosphorylation of canonical RPS6KB1/S6K1 and EIF4EBP1/4E-BP1 (PubMed:21209915, PubMed:24081491, PubMed:31672913, PubMed:32612235). In low-amino acid conditions, the lysosomal folliculin complex (LFC) is formed on the membrane of lysosomes, which inhibits the GTPase-activating activity of FLCN, inactivates mTORC1 and maximizes nuclear translocation of TFEB and TFE3 (PubMed:31672913). Upon amino acid restimulation, RagA/RRAGA (or RagB/RRAGB) nucleotide exchange promotes disassembly of the LFC complex and liberates the GTPase-activating activity of FLCN, leading to activation of mTORC1 and subsequent cytoplasmic retention of TFEB and TFE3 (PubMed:31672913). Indirectly acts as a positive regulator of Wnt signaling by promoting mTOR-dependent cytoplasmic retention of MiT/TFE factor TFE3 (PubMed:31272105). Required for the exit of hematopoietic stem cell from pluripotency by promoting mTOR-dependent cytoplasmic retention of TFE3, thereby increasing Wnt signaling (PubMed:30733432). Acts as an inhibitor of browning of adipose tissue by regulating mTOR-dependent cytoplasmic retention of TFE3 (By similarity). Involved in the control of embryonic stem cells differentiation; together with LAMTOR1 it is necessary to recruit and activate RagC/RRAGC and RagD/RRAGD at the lysosomes, and to induce exit of embryonic stem cells from pluripotency via non-canonical, mTOR-independent TFE3 inactivation (By similarity). In response to flow stress, regulates STK11/LKB1 accumulation and mTORC1 activation through primary cilia: may act by recruiting STK11/LKB1 to primary cilia for activation of AMPK resided at basal bodies, causing mTORC1 down-regulation (PubMed:27072130). Together with FNIP1 and/or FNIP2, regulates autophagy: following phosphorylation by ULK1, interacts with GABARAP and promotes autophagy (PubMed:25126726). Required for starvation-induced perinuclear clustering of lysosomes by promoting association of RILP with its effector RAB34 (PubMed:27113757). Regulates glycolysis by binding to lactate dehydrogenase LDHA, acting as an uncompetitive inhibitor (PubMed:34381247)

Curated MONDO disease pages that list FLCN among their top associated genes.

Data sources: HGNC (CC BY 4.0), AlphaFold (CC BY 4.0, Jumper et al. Nature 2021), Genomics England PanelApp (CC BY 4.0), ClinGen, Open Targets (CC0), UniProt.

Not for sole clinical decision-making. Always verify against primary sources.