A compendium of Caenorhabditis elegans RNA binding proteins predicts extensive regulation at multiple levels.

Gene expression is regulated at multiple levels, including transcription and translation, as well as mRNA and protein stability. Although systems-level functions of transcription factors and microRNAs are rapidly being characterized, few studies have focused on the posttranscriptional gene regulation by RNA binding proteins (RBPs). RBPs are important to many aspects of gene regulation. Thus, it is essential to know which genes encode RBPs, which RBPs regulate which gene(s), and how RBP genes are themselves regulated. Here we provide a comprehensive compendium of RBPs from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (wRBP1.0). We predict that as many as 887 (4.4%) of C. elegans genes may encode RBPs ~250 of which likely function in a gene-specific manner. In addition, we find that RBPs, and most notably gene-specific RBPs, are themselves enriched for binding and modification by regulatory proteins, indicating the potential for extensive regulation of RBPs at many different levels. wRBP1.0 will provide a significant contribution toward the comprehensive delineation of posttranscriptional regulatory networks and will provide a resource for further studies regulation by RBPs.

基因表达在多个层面受到调控，包括转录和翻译，以及mRNA和蛋白质的稳定性。尽管转录因子和微小RNA的系统层面功能正在迅速得到阐明，但很少有研究关注RNA结合蛋白（RBP）对转录后基因的调控。RBP对基因调控的许多方面都很重要。因此，了解哪些基因编码RBP、哪些RBP调控哪些基因以及RBP基因自身是如何被调控的至关重要。在此，我们提供了来自线虫秀丽隐杆线虫的RBP综合概要（wRBP1.0）。我们预测秀丽隐杆线虫多达887个（4.4%）的基因可能编码RBP，其中约250个可能以基因特异性的方式发挥作用。此外，我们发现RBP，尤其是基因特异性RBP，自身富含被调控蛋白结合和修饰的位点，这表明RBP在许多不同层面可能受到广泛调控。wRBP1.0将对全面描绘转录后调控网络做出重大贡献，并将为进一步研究RBP的调控提供资源。