title: Gene elav of Drosophila melanogaster: a prototype for neuronal-specific RNA binding protein gene family that is conserved in flies and humans.
abstract: Regulated gene activity is crucial to the formation and function of the nervous system. It is well known that gene regulation can occur at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translational, and post-translational levels. In this review our focus has been on the post-transcriptional regulation in neurons and on neural-specific RNA binding proteins that may be involved in post-transcriptional modulation of gene activity. We have taken advantage of this opportunity to review our work on the elav gene of Drosophila melanogaster which encodes a neural-specific RNA binding protein and relate it to other members of this elav-like gene family. We report new data that suggests that elav is post-transcriptionally regulated and we demonstrate that below-threshold levels of ELAV protein severely affects neuronal differentiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Samson
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reeves
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D005810:Multigene Family; D009154:Mutation; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins