RCOR3

RCOR3, also known as REST corepressor 3 or CoREST3, is a gene that encodes a member of the CoREST family of transcriptional corepressors. The CoREST family includes RCOR1 (CoREST1) and RCOR2 (CoREST2), and these proteins participate in the REST (RE1-silencing transcription factor) repressor complex that regulates the expression of neuronal genes.

RCOR3 proteins contribute to transcriptional repression by forming a complex with REST and by recruiting chromatin-modifying enzymes to REST target sites. In this way, RCOR3 helps establish a repressive chromatin state at neuronal genes, particularly in non-neuronal cells and during certain stages of neural development and differentiation. The precise targets and physiological roles of RCOR3 relative to RCOR1 and RCOR2 are still being defined.

Expression data indicate that RCOR3 is expressed in neural tissues, with broader or variable expression reported in some studies. The protein is generally considered to be involved in transcriptional regulation within the nucleus, consistent with its role in chromatin-based gene control.

In research contexts, RCOR3 is viewed as part of the REST/CoREST transcriptional repression axis and is studied for its contributions to neural development and epigenetic regulation of gene expression programs. Compared with RCOR1 and RCOR2, RCOR3 is less well characterized, and explicit disease associations remain limited, though disruptions to REST/CoREST–mediated repression are of interest in neurodevelopmental and oncogenic contexts.