Identification and Structural Analysis of Human RBM8A and RBM8B: Two Highly Conserved RNA-Binding Motif Proteins That Interact with OVCA1, a Candidate Tumor Suppressor

The OVCA1 gene is a candidate for the breast and ovarian tumor suppressor gene at chromosome 17p13.3. To help determine the function(s) of OVCA1, we used a yeast two-hybrid screening approach to identify OVCA1-associating proteins. One such protein, which we initially referred to as BOV-1 (binder of OVCA1-1) is 173 or 174 amino acids in length and appears to be a new member of a highly conserved RNA-binding motif (RBM) protein family that is highly conserved evolutionarily. Northern blot analysis revealed that BOV-1 is ubiquitously expressed and that three distinct messenger RNA species are expressed, 1-, 3.2-, and 5.8-kb transcripts. The 1-kb transcript is the most abundant and is expressed at high levels in the testis, heart, placenta, spleen, thymus, and lymphocytes. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization and the 5.8-kb complementary DNA probe, we determined that BOV-1 maps to both chromosome 5q13–q14 and chromosome 14q22–q23. Further sequence analysis determined that the gene coding the 1- and the 3.2-kb transcripts (HGMW-approved gene symbol RBM8A) maps to 14q22–q23, whereas a second highly related gene coding for the 5.8-kb transcript resides at chromosome 5q13–q14 (HGMW-approved gene symbol RBM8B). The predicted proteins encoded by RBM8A and RBM8B are identical except that RBM8B is 16 amino acids shorter at its N-terminus. Molecular modeling of the RNA-binding domain of RBM8A and RBM8B, based on homology to the sex-lethal protein of Drosophila, identifies conserved residues in the RBM8 protein family that are likely to contact RNA in a protein–RNA complex. The conservation of sequence and structure through such an evolutionarily divergent group of organisms suggests an important function for the RBM8 family of proteins.