Regulation of pre-mRNA and mRNA processing by the neuron-specific Hu RNA-binding proteins

蛋白质表达的精确控制在生物学中是绝对关键的，在任何时刻打开或关闭哪些基因的关键决定控制着生物体在发育过程中的适当生长和成熟，并负责生物体作为成年人的动态平衡和对环境变化的适当反应。许多基因表达程序是高度复杂的，通过调控单个基因的激活来控制它们从DNA复制到RNA。然而，这种激活只是产生活性蛋白质的过程的开始。在高等生物体中，这些RNA拷贝几乎总是包含称为内含子的中断，必须从RNA中删除。此外，与特定RNA结合的蛋白质因素可以决定RNA是否用于制造蛋白质，这些因素也可以影响RNA到特定亚细胞目的地的定位，从而引起高度定位的蛋白质表达。有证据表明，神经元是一种严重依赖RNA调节机制的细胞类型。在发育过程中，神经元变得高度极化，获得一个轴突，该轴突可以延长并找到远处的突触目标。虽然轴突生长锥体如何对各种引导线索做出反应已知很多，但轴突能够将这种引导线索信息转化为允许生长锥扩张或坍塌的结构变化的机制在很大程度上还没有被探索。最近的证据表明，准确的生长锥指导完全依赖于局部蛋白质的合成。这一发现的功能推论是，轴突引导需要RNA的定位和对生长锥中RNA的蛋白质合成的控制。个体细胞内的这种空间基因调控现象是理解大脑如何运作的一个中心研究兴趣。

The precise control of protein expression is absolutely critical in biology, and the key decisions about which genes are turned on or off at any one moment control the proper growth and maturation of an organism during development, and are responsible for the organism's homeostasis and proper response to environmental changes as an adult. Many gene expression programs are highly complex and controlled by regulating the activation of individual genes as they are copied from DNA to RNA. However, this activation is just the start of the process to produce an active protein. In higher organisms, these RNA copies almost always contain interruptions called introns, which must be excised from the RNA. Also, protein factors bound to specific RNAs can dictate whether the RNA is used to make protein or not, and these factors can also affect the localisation of the RNA to a specific sub-cellular destination, giving rise to highly localised protein expression. Evidence suggests that neurons are a cell type that rely heavily on mechanisms of RNA regulation. During development neurons become highly polarised, acquiring an axon which can elongate and find distant synaptic targets. While much is known about how axon growth cones respond to various guidance cues, the mechanisms by which the axon is able to translate this guidance cue information into structural changes which allow the growth cone to expand or collapse is largely unexplored. Recent evidence suggests that accurate growth cone guidance is absolutely dependent upon local protein synthesis. The functional corollary of this finding is that axon guidance requires RNA localisation and control of protein synthesis of RNAs in the growth cone. This phenomenon of spatial gene regulation within an individual cell is a central research interest for understanding how the brain functions.