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The high-density lipoprotein binding protein (HDLBP) is the human member of an evolutionarily conserved family of RNA-binding proteins, the vigilin protein family. These proteins are characterized by 14 or 15 RNA-interacting KH (heterologous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K homology) domains. While mainly present at the cytoplasmic face of the endoplasmic reticulum, HDLBP and its homologs are also found in the cytosol and nucleus. HDLBP is involved in various processes, including translation, chromosome segregation, cholesterol transport and carcinogenesis. Especially, its association with the latter two has attracted specific interest in the HDLBP’s molecular role. In this review, we give an overview of some of the functions of the protein as well as introduce its impact on different kinds of cancer, its connection to lipid metabolism and its role in viral infection. We also aim at addressing the possible use of HDLBP as a drug target or biomarker and discuss its future implications.

Cytoplasmic localization of mRNAs is common to all organisms and serves the spatial expression of genes. Cis-acting RNA signals (mostly found in the mRNA’s 3'-UTR), called zipcodes recruit trans-acting RNA-binding proteins that facilitate the localization of the mRNA. UV-cross-linking or affinity purification has been applied to identify such proteins but suffer from the need for stable RNA-protein binding or direct contact of protein and RNA. To identify stably or transiently interacting proteins that directly or indirectly associated with the localization elements and the body of the mRNA, we developed an in vivo proximity labeling method we call RNA-BioID. In RNA-BioID, we tether a fusion of the BirA* biotin ligase and the MS2 coat protein (MCP) at the 3'-UTR of MS2-tagged β-actin mRNA in vivo. Exposing BirA* expressing cells to biotin in the media and induces biotinylation of β-actin mRNA-associated proteins that can be isolated with streptavidin beads. This technique allowed us to identify by mass spectrometry analysis the β-actin mRNA 3'-UTR-interacting proteome in fibroblasts. The protocol can be useful to identify the interacting proteome of any mRNA in mammalian cells.

Summary: The RNA-binding protein Scp160p is the yeast homolog of the conserved vigilin protein family. These proteins influence a variety of nuclear and cytoplasmic functions. One of Scp160p’s reported roles is to increase translation elongation efficiency in a manner related to codon usage. Thus, it can affect translation speed and co-translational folding of nascent peptides. We used polyglutamine (polyQ) reporters to assess Scp160p’s effect on protein synthesis and observed that, in the absence of Scp160p, aggregation of polyQ is reduced and toxicity is abolished. We additionally took a proteomic approach and analyzed the impact of Scp160p on the aggregation of endogenous proteins under normal growth conditions. In the absence of Scp160p, aggregation of many Q/N-rich proteins was reduced. Because aggregation mediated by these regions can be important for the proteins’ functions, Scp160p may affect many processes via aggregation of Q/N-rich proteins. : Glutamine and asparagine (Q/N)-mediated protein aggregation can lead to neurodegenerative diseases but is also functionally important. Cheng et al. report a method to assess aggregation of proteins at the proteomic level and observe reduced aggregation of many endogenous Q/N-rich proteins in the absence of the yeast vigilin protein. Keywords: vigilin, polyglutamine, protein aggregation, codon usage, low complexity regions, SCP160

Multiple cellular functions are controlled by the interaction of RNAs and proteins. Together with the RNAs they control, RNA interacting proteins form RNA protein complexes, which are considered to serve as the true regulatory units for post-transcriptional gene expression. To understand how RNAs are modified, transported, and regulated therefore requires specific knowledge of their interaction partners. To this end, multiple techniques have been developed to characterize the interaction between RNAs and proteins. In this review, we briefly summarize the common methods to study RNA–protein interaction including crosslinking and immunoprecipitation (CLIP), and aptamer- or antisense oligonucleotide-based RNA affinity purification. Following this, we focus on in vivo proximity labeling to study RNA–protein interactions. In proximity labeling, a labeling enzyme like ascorbate peroxidase or biotin ligase is targeted to specific RNAs, RNA-binding proteins, or even cellular compartments and uses biotin to label the proteins and RNAs in its vicinity. The tagged molecules are then enriched and analyzed by mass spectrometry or RNA-Seq. We highlight the latest studies that exemplify the strength of this approach for the characterization of RNA protein complexes and distribution of RNAs in vivo.

In eukaryotes, hundreds of mRNAs are localized by specialized transport complexes. For localization, transcripts are recognized by RNA-binding proteins and incorporated into motor-containing messenger ribonucleoprotein particles (mRNPs). To date, the molecular assembly of such mRNPs is not well understood and most details on cargo specificity remain unresolved. We used ASH1-mRNA transport in yeast to provide a first assessment of where and how localizing mRNAs are specifically recognized and incorporated into mRNPs. By using in vitro-interaction and reconstitution assays, we found that none of the implicated mRNA-binding proteins showed highly specific cargo binding. Instead, we identified the cytoplasmic myosin adapter She3p as additional RNA-binding protein. We further found that only the complex of the RNA-binding proteins She2p and She3p achieves synergistic cargo binding, with an at least 60-fold higher affinity for localizing mRNAs when compared to control RNA. Mutational studies identified a C-terminal RNA-binding fragment of She3p to be important for synergistic RNA binding with She2p. The observed cargo specificity of the ternary complex is considerably higher than previously reported for localizing mRNAs. It suggests that RNA binding for mRNP localization generally exhibits higher selectivity than inferred from previous in vitro data. This conclusion is fully consistent with a large body of in vivo evidence from different organisms. Since the ternary yeast complex only assembles in the cytoplasm, specific mRNA recognition might be limited to the very last steps of mRNP assembly. Remarkably, the mRNA itself triggers the assembly of mature, motor-containing complexes. Our reconstitution of a major portion of the mRNA-transport complex offers new and unexpected insights into the molecular assembly of specific, localization-competent mRNPs and provides an important step forward in our mechanistic understanding of mRNA localization in general.