ELAV-like protein 3 is a

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respon ...

that in humans is encoded by the ''ELAVL3''

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

. A member of the ELAVL protein family, ELAV-like 3 is a

neural In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes th ...

-specific

RNA-binding protein RNA-binding proteins (often abbreviated as RBPs) are proteins that bind to the double or single stranded RNA in cells and participate in forming ribonucleoprotein complexes. RBPs contain various structural motifs, such as RNA recognition moti ...

which contains three RNP-type RNA recognition motifs. The observation that ELAVL3 is one of several Hu

antigens In immunology, an antigen (Ag) is a molecule or molecular structure or any foreign particulate matter or a pollen grain that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune response. ...

(neuronal-specific RNA-binding proteins) recognized by the anti-Hu serum

antibody An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and Viral disease, viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique m ...

present in sera from patients with paraneoplastic

encephalomyelitis Encephalomyelitis is inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. Various types of encephalomyelitis include: * '' Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis'' or ''postinfectious encephalomyelitis'', a demyelinating disease of the brain and spinal cord, ...

and sensory neuronopathy ( PEM/PSN) suggests it has a role in

neurogenesis Neurogenesis is the process by which nervous system cells, the neurons, are produced by neural stem cells (NSCs). It occurs in all species of animals except the porifera (sponges) and placozoans. Types of NSCs include neuroepithelial cells (NECs ...

. Two alternatively spliced

transcript variants Alternative splicing, or alternative RNA splicing, or differential splicing, is an alternative splicing process during gene expression that allows a single gene to code for multiple proteins. In this process, particular exons of a gene may be ...

encoding distinct

isoforms A protein isoform, or "protein variant", is a member of a set of highly similar proteins that originate from a single gene or gene family and are the result of genetic differences. While many perform the same or similar biological roles, some iso ...

have been found for this gene.

References

Further reading