Journal of Molecular Endocrinology

Anatomy of the POMC gene and its transcription and translation. (A) POMC is located on the short arm of human chromosome 2 in the region indicated by the vertical red line. This region is expanded in reverse orientation in (B) indicating those genes located in the vicinity of POMC. The direction of transcription for each of these genes is shown by the small horizontal arrows. Note the small size of POMC in comparison with other genes. An expanded view of POMC is shown in (C) indicating the three main exons and the two sites of transcription described in the text. The majority of transcripts start in exon 1 giving rise to the 1200 nt mRNA indicated. This RNA is translated from an initiator methionine in exon 2 to encode the POMC peptide.