The role of RNA instability determinants in the regulation of cIAP1 expression

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The Inhibitor of Apoptosis proteins (IAPs) are critical regulators of cell survival. Given their important role it is not surprising that dysregulated levels of IAPs are implicated in various disease states ranging from neurodegenerative disorders to autoimmunity and cancer. The expression of IAPs is regulated at both the level of protein and mRNA synthesis. This proposal deals with investigating a third mechanism regulating one members of the IAP family (cIAP1) expression - mRNA instability. We will employ various biochemical, genetic and molecular biology techniques to define the determinants of RNA stability in the cIAP1 mRNA and to identify specific cellular proteins that bind to these determinants and regulate cIAP1 mRNA stability. We expect that our data will extend our knowledge of the regulation of mRNA stability in general as well as the importance of this regulatory mechanism in the control of cell survival. We hope that our findings will be directly transferable to understanding regulation of expression of other genes that utilize similar mechanism.