RNA recognition motif 1 (RRM1) found in the Hu proteins family, Drosophila sex-lethal (SXL), and similar proteins
This subfamily corresponds to the RRM1 of Hu proteins and SXL. The Hu proteins family represents a group of RNA-binding proteins involved in diverse biological processes. Since the Hu proteins share high homology with the Drosophila embryonic lethal abnormal vision (ELAV) protein, the Hu family is sometimes referred to as the ELAV family. Drosophila ELAV is exclusively expressed in neurons and is required for the correct differentiation and survival of neurons in flies. The neuronal members of the Hu family include Hu-antigen B (HuB or ELAV-2 or Hel-N1), Hu-antigen C (HuC or ELAV-3 or PLE21), and Hu-antigen D (HuD or ELAV-4), which play important roles in neuronal differentiation, plasticity and memory. HuB is also expressed in gonads. Hu-antigen R (HuR or ELAV-1 or HuA) is ubiquitously expressed Hu family member. It has a variety of biological functions mostly related to the regulation of cellular response to DNA damage and other types of stress. Hu proteins perform their cytoplasmic and nuclear molecular functions by coordinately regulating functionally related mRNAs. In the cytoplasm, Hu proteins recognize and bind to AU-rich RNA elements (AREs) in the 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of certain target mRNAs, such as GAP-43, vascular epithelial growth factor (VEGF), the glucose transporter GLUT1, eotaxin and c-fos, and stabilize those ARE-containing mRNAs. They also bind and regulate the translation of some target mRNAs, such as neurofilament M, GLUT1, and p27. In the nucleus, Hu proteins function as regulators of polyadenylation and alternative splicing. Each Hu protein contains three RNA recognition motifs (RRMs), also termed RBDs (RNA binding domains) or RNPs (ribonucleoprotein domains). RRM1 and RRM2 may cooperate in binding to an ARE. RRM3 may help to maintain the stability of the RNA-protein complex, and might also bind to poly(A) tails or be involved in protein-protein interactions. This family also includes the sex-lethal protein (SXL) from Drosophila melanogaster. SXL governs sexual differentiation and X chromosome dosage compensation in flies. It induces female-specific alternative splicing of the transformer (tra) pre-mRNA by binding to the tra uridine-rich polypyrimidine tract at the non-sex-specific 3' splice site during the sex-determination process. SXL binds to its own pre-mRNA and promotes female-specific alternative splicing. It contains an N-terminal Gly/Asn-rich domain that may be responsible for the protein-protein interaction, and tandem RRMs that show high preference to bind single-stranded, uridine-rich target RNA transcripts.
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