This gene encodes the ghrelin-obestatin preproprotein that is cleaved to yield two peptides, ghrelin and obestatin. Ghrelin is a powerful appetite stimulant and plays an important role in energy homeostasis. Its secretion is initiated when the stomach is empty, whereupon it binds to the growth hormone secretagogue receptor in the hypothalamus which results in the secretion of growth hormone (somatotropin). Ghrelin is thought to regulate multiple activities, including hunger, reward perception via the mesolimbic pathway, gastric acid secretion, gastrointestinal motility, and pancreatic glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. It was initially proposed that obestatin plays an opposing role to ghrelin by promoting satiety and thus decreasing food intake, but this action is still debated. Recent reports suggest multiple metabolic roles for obestatin, including regulating adipocyte function and glucose metabolism. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. In addition, antisense transcripts for this gene have been identified and may potentially regulate ghrelin-obestatin preproprotein expression. [provided by RefSeq, Nov 2014]
Transcription factors with Perturb-seq knockdown data for GHRL. The Binding column indicates whether any binding evidence exists for this TF–gene pair (ChIP-seq or motif footprint peaks). The Mean coef is the average Perturb-seq regression coefficient across active gRNAs (positive = GHRL upregulated upon KD; negative = downregulated). The Outlier column indicates whether this gene is in the top or bottom 5% of all TF knockdown effects.
| TF | Mean coef | Binding | Outlier | TF→Gene link |
|---|
Open chromatin peaks (ATAC-seq) in the genomic neighbourhood of GHRL, linked by TSS proximity or chromatin conformation (Multiome / HiCAR). Each element overlaps at least one TF ChIP-seq binding site — the TFs column shows how many distinct TFs bind that element.
| Accessibility | Element | Dist. to TSS | Link type | TFs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chr3:10,286,921–10,287,242 | 5.7 kb | Proximal (<10kb) | 145 | |
| chr3:10,292,794–10,293,066 | at TSS | At TSS | 401 |
Genomic view of the GHRL locus showing ATAC-seq accessibility and RNA-seq expression across the ESC → DE time course, together with TF binding peaks and element-to-TSS loop connections.