d’Ydewalle et al. (2017) identified a SMN antisense transcript (SMN-AS1), whose expression levels increased in neuronal differentiation, inversely correlating with the SMN protein. They found that SMN-AS1 recruits the chromatin modifier PRC2 to the SMN2 promoter repressing its gene expression. SMN-AS1 knock-down dissociates PRC2 from the promoter, thus increasing the overall SMN protein levels in neurons. This indicates that the levels of SMN-AS1 play an important role in the balance of residual SMN protein, thus impacting on the clinical outcome of the SMA disease (d’Ydewalle et al., 2017). This evidence concerns the gene SMN1 and proximal spinal muscular atrophy.