ELAVL2/HuB is a neuron-specific RNA-binding protein, which contains three RNA recognition motifs (RRMs) and was found to bind in vitro to the 3’ UTR of Id mRNA encoding a transcriptional repressor, which is abundantly expressed in undifferentiated neural precursors. Overexpression of ELAVL2/HuB can result in increased stability and translation of the ERG mRNA, which bears a U-rich region in its 3’ UTR.
Posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression is a ribonucleoprotein-driven process, which involves RNA binding proteins (RBPs) and non-coding RNAs that affect splicing, nuclear export, subcellular localization, mRNA decay and translation. The RNP Immunoprecipitation-Chip (RIP-Chip), RIP-Seq and RIP-RTPCR allow the identification of multiple RNA targets of RBPs globally and within the context of a cell extract. Antibodies specific to the RNA binding protein of interest are used to co-immunoprecipitate the RNA binding protein and the associated subset of mRNAs. The mRNA content is interrogated using standard microarray or sequencing technology. RIP-Certified Antibody is validated for use in RNP Immunoprecipitation (RIP) in conjunction with the RIP-Assay Kit distributed from MBL. Its ability to immunoprecipitate mRNAs and RBPs complex was confirmed by quantitative and qualitative analysis on NanoDrop, Bioanalyzer and RT-PCR or microarray.