The STAR family has an extremely diverse role during development and in RNA metabolism. We have concentrated on QKI as an example of this pleiotropic activity and also presented some new data on the role of its conserved 3′UTRs gleaned from bioinformatics analysis of theoretical miRNA...

Signal transduction and activation of RNA (STAR) family of RNA binding proteins are highly conserved through evolution indicating their core role during development, as well as in adult life. This chapter focuses on two Drosophila STAR proteins: Held Out Wing (HOW), the ortholog of mammalian...

STAR (Signal Transduction and Activation of RNA) proteins owed their name to the presence in their structure of a RNA‑binding domain and several hallmarks of their involvement in signal transduction pathways. In many members of the family, the STAR RNA‑binding domain (also named GSG, an...

A comprehensive understanding of the C. elegans STAR proteins GLD‑1 and ASD‑2 is emerging from a combination of studies. Those employing genetic analysis reveal in vivo function, others involving biochemical approaches pursue the identification of mRNA targets through which these proteins...

The family of Signal Transduction and Activators of RNA (STAR) is named based on the intriguing potential for these proteins to connect cell signaling directly to the homeostasis of their mRNA ligands. Besides the commonly shared single RNA binding domain that displays heterogeneous nuclear...

Spermatogenesis is one of the few major developmental pathways which are still ongoing in the adult. In this article we review the properties of Sam68 and T‑STAR, which are the STAR proteins functionally implicated in mammalian spermatogenesis. Sam68 is a ubiquitously expressed member of the...

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae branchpoint binding protein (BBP) is a 53 kDa pre‑mRNA processing factor with characteristic STAR/GSG protein organization. This includes a central RNA binding site composed of an extended type I KH domain with an adjacent QUA2 motif. Downstream of KH‑QUA2 are...

STAR proteins regulate diverse cellular processes and control numerous developmental events. They function at the post‑transcriptional level by regulating the stability, sub‑cellular distribution, alternative splicing, or translational efficiency of specific mRNA targets. Significant...

The prototype STAR (Signal Transduction and Activation of RNA) protein is Sam68, the Src‑associated substrate during mitosis of 68 kDa. Sam68, like all other STAR proteins, belongs to the large class of heteronuclear ribonucleoprotein particle K (hnRNP K) homology (KH) domain family of...

Functional studies of the mouse quaking gene (Qk) have focused on its role in the postnatal central nervous system during myelination. However, the death of the majority of homozygous mouse quaking alleles revealed that quaking has a critical role in embryonic development prior to the start of...