# NR5A2

Source: https://onco.cc/targets/nr5a2/  
OnCo record `nr5a2` (Target). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

NR5A2 (Nuclear receptor subfamily 5 group A member 2) is a protein that switches other genes on and off. In the public catalogues the evidence so far is association rather than a proven role.

## Summary

Orphan nuclear receptor that binds DNA as a monomer to the 5'-TCAAGGCCA-3' sequence and controls expression of target genes: regulates key biological processes, such as early embryonic development, cholesterol and bile acid synthesis pathways, as well as liver and pancreas morphogenesis. Ligand-binding causes conformational change which causes recruitment of coactivators, promoting target gene activation. The specific ligand is unknown, but specific phospholipids, such as phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, dilauroyl phosphatidylcholine and diundecanoyl phosphatidylcholine can act as ligand in vitro.

Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.54 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.98, animal model 0.69, genetic association 0.66).

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: nuclear receptor subfamily 5 group A member 2; Nuclear receptor subfamily 5 group A member 2; FTZ-F1beta; hB1F; LRH-1; FTZ-F1; hB1F-2; B1F2; LRH1
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: NR5A2
- Class: transcription
- Biology: Orphan nuclear receptor that binds DNA as a monomer to the 5'-TCAAGGCCA-3' sequence and controls expression of target genes: regulates key biological processes, such as early embryonic development, cholesterol and bile acid synthesis pathways, as well as liver and pancreas morphogenesis. Ligand-binding causes conformational change which causes recruitment of coactivators, promoting target gene activation. The specific ligand is unknown, but specific phospholipids, such as phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, dilauroyl phosphatidylcholine and diundecanoyl phosphatidylcholine can act as ligand in vitro. Acts as a pioneer transcription factor, which unwraps target DNA from histones and elicits local opening of closed chromatin. Plays a central role during preimplantation stages of embryonic development. Plays a minor role in zygotic genome activation (ZGA) by regulating a small set of two-cell stage genes. Location: Nucleus; Chromosome (UniProt). Locus 1q32.1 (HGNC).

## Notes

- Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: none stated by the sources. Evidence tier "association-only" is the strongest of those signals.
- Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:7984: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:7984
- UniProt O00482: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O00482/entry
- NCBI Gene 2494: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/2494
- Ensembl ENSG00000116833: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000116833

## Connected records

- collections: [Open Targets Platform](https://onco.cc/collections/open-targets/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/nr5a2.json