Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

The Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) gene shows deletions in the majority of patients with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a disease of motor neuron degeneration. To date only two missense mutations have been reported in SMN in patients with SMA. The fact that no SMN-homologues have been forthcoming from data-base searching has resulted in a lack of hypotheses concerning the structural and functional consequences of these mutations. Recently SMN has been shown to interact with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) suggesting a role in mRNA metabolism. We describe a novel missense mutation and the subsequent identification of a triplicated tyrosine-glycine (Y-G) peptide sequence at the C-terminal of SMN which encompasses each of the three predicted amino acid sequence substitutions. We have identified apparent orthologues of SMN in Caenorhabditis elegans and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. These sequences retain the highly conserved Y-G motif and provide additional support for a role of SMN in mRNA metabolism.

Original publication

DOI

10.1093/hmg/6.3.497

Type

Journal article

Journal

Hum Mol Genet

Publication Date

03/1997

Volume

6

Pages

497 - 500

Keywords

Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Caenorhabditis elegans, Cloning, Molecular, Conserved Sequence, Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein, Female, Glycine, Humans, Male, Mice, Molecular Sequence Data, Muscular Atrophy, Spinal, Mutation, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Pedigree, Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational, RNA, RNA-Binding Proteins, SMN Complex Proteins, Saccharomyces, Sequence Alignment, Sequence Analysis, Tyrosine