Institute of Human Genetics, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Mail Code 206, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease caused by the expansion of a polyglutamine tract within the SCA1 product, ataxin-1. Previously, using transgenic mice, it was demonstrated that in order for a mutant allele of ataxin-1 to cause disease it must be transported to the nucleus of the neuron. Using an in vitro RNA-binding assay, we demonstrate that ataxin-1 does bind RNA and that this binding diminishes as the length of its polyglutamine tract increases. These observations suggest that ataxin-1 plays a role in RNA metabolism and that the expansion of the polyglutamine tract may alter this function.