Cloning and Characterization of HuR, a Ubiquitously Expressed Elav-like Protein (*)
- From the (1)Program in Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10021 and the
- (2)Department of Cancer Biology, Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio 44195
- § To whom correspondence should be addressed: Box 20, Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave., New York, NY 10021. Tel.: 212-639-8701; Fax: 212-794-4332.
Abstract
The neuronal-specific Elav-like proteins (HuD, Hel-N, and HuC) contain three RNP-type concensus motifs and bind to AU-rich elements. We have identified and cloned a fourth member of this family (HuR) that is expressed in a wide variety of cell types. The purified recombinant protein binds avidly to the AU-rich element in c-fos and interleukin-3 mRNAs. In the case of the c-fos AU-rich element, HuR binds to a core element of 27 nucleotides that contain AUUUA, AUUUUA, and AUUUUUA motifs. Mutational analysis has shown that all three AU motifs are required for maximal binding.
Footnotes
-
↵* This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant NS29682 (to H. M. F.) and NCI Core Grant P30-CA08748. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore by hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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↵1 The abbreviations used are:
- UTR
-
untranslated region
- ARE
-
AU-rich element
- IL
-
interleukin
- RT
-
reverse transcriptase
- PCR
-
polymerase chain reaction
- GST
-
glutathione S-transferase.
-
- Received December 12, 1995.
- Revision received January 29, 1996.
- © 1996 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
