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RNA recognition motif 2 (RRM2) found in the Hu proteins family This subfamily corresponds to the RRM2 of Hu proteins family which 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 the 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. Moreover, HuR has an anti-apoptotic function during early cell stress response. It binds to mRNAs and enhances the expression of several anti-apoptotic proteins, such as p21waf1, p53, and prothymosin alpha. HuR also has pro-apoptotic function by promoting apoptosis when cell death is unavoidable. Furthermore, HuR may be important in muscle differentiation, adipogenesis, suppression of inflammatory response and modulation of gene expression in response to chronic ethanol exposure and amino acid starvation. 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.
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