IDENTIFICATION OF THE FACTORS THAT INTERACT WITH NCBP, AN 80 KDA NUCLEAR CAP-BINDING PROTEIN

It has been shown that the monomethylated cap structure plays important roles in pre-mRNA splicing and nuclear export of RNA. As a candidate for the factor involved in these nuclear events we have previously purified an 80 kDa nuclear cap binding protein (NCBP) from a HeLa cell nuclear extract and isolated its full-length cDNA, In this report, in order to obtain a clue to the cellular functions of NCBP, we attempted to identify a factor(s) that interacts with NCBP Using the yeast two-hybrid system we isolated three clones from a HeLa cell cDNA library. We designated the proteins encoded by these clones NIPs (NCBP interacting proteins), NIP1 and NIP2 have an RNP consensus-type RNA binding domain, whereas NIP3 contains a unique domain of Arg-Glu or Lys-Glu dipeptide repeats, We also show that NCBP requires NIP1 for binding to the cap structure, Possible roles of NIPs in cap-dependent nuclear processes are discussed.