This locus has a highly complex imprinted expression pattern. It gives rise to maternally, paternally, and biallelically expressed transcripts that are derived from four alternative promoters and 5' exons. Some transcripts contains a differentially methylated region (DMR) at their 5' exons, and this DMR is commonly found in imprinted genes and correlates with transcript expression. An antisense transcript is produced from an overlapping locus on the opposite strand. One of the transcripts produced from this locus, and the antisense transcript, are paternally expressed noncoding RNAs, and may regulate imprinting in this region. In addition, one of the transcripts contains a second overlapping ORF, which encodes a structurally unrelated protein - Alex. Alternative splicing of downstream exons is also observed, which results in different forms of the stimulatory G-protein alpha subunit, a key element of the classical signal transduction pathway linking receptor-ligand interactions with the activation of adenylyl cyclase and a variety of cellular reponses. Multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. Mutations in this gene result in pseudohypoparathyroidism type 1a, pseudohypoparathyroidism type 1b, Albright hereditary osteodystrophy, pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism, McCune-Albright syndrome, progressive osseus heteroplasia, polyostotic fibrous dysplasia of bone, and some pituitary tumors. [provided by RefSeq]. Transcript Variant: This variant (4) is maternally expressed and encodes neuroendocrine secretory protein 55 (NESP55), which localizes to large secretory vesicles of endocrine cells and neurons. Its coding region is within the 5'-most exon and does not overlap the coding regions used by other transcripts; thus NESP55 has no similarity to isoforms of the G-protein alpha subunit. This variant has an antisense transcript, GNASAS. Publication Note: This RefSeq record includes a subset of the publications that are available for this gene. Please see the Entrez Gene record to access additional publications.