Table 1.

Neuronal RNA binding proteins

Neuron-specific RNA binding proteins
RNABP	Comments	Expression	Other Paralogs	Position-dependent splicing map/other function	Expression References	Knockout Mouse
Nova1-2	Nova1 - first neuronal RNABP for which a genetic-null mouse was engineered	CNS-specific Nova2: Trace expression in lung (unknown cell type)	none	yes		Nova1 (Jensen et al., 2000b) Nova2 (Huang et al., 2005)
Elavl2-4	Elavl4: Frequent marker neuron-specific marker	Elavl2: Most weakly expressed Elavl3: most unique expression patterns Extra-CNS expression in autonomic neurons (e.g. intestinal expression in myenteric plexus neurons)	Elavl1	yes	(Okano and Darnell, 1997)	Elavl3 (Akamatsu et al., 2005; Ince-Dunn et al., 2012) Elavl4 (Akamatsu et al., 2005)
Rbfox3 (NeuN)	Frequent neuron-specific marker; Rbfox1 implicated in autism	Intestinal expression restricted to myenteric plexus neurons	Rbfox1/2	yes	Refs for Rbfox3 Refs Geshwind	Rbfox1 (Gehman et al., 2011)
Ptbp2		Expression in rare subsets of glial cells and in mitotic neuronal progenitors	Ptbp1	yes	(Licatalosi et al., 2012)	(Licatalosi et al., 2012)
nSR100		Highly neural enriched by non-quantitative RT-PCR		?	(Calarco et al., 2009)
RNABPs not unique to neurons, but of biologic interest
CELF	Family includes CELF1 (CUGBP1), a splicing factor implicated in myotonic dystrophy; literature unclear re: neuronal specificity of other family members	Celf4: Weak RNA expression by Northern blot outside nervous system, but question of cross reactivity among paralogs unclear	Celf1, 2, 4-6	?	(Meins et al., 2002; Cooper et al., 2009)	(Wagnon et al., 2011)
FMRP		Neuron-specific in brain; widely expressed in other tissues	FXR1/2 (wide expression)	Inhibits translation by arresting ribosomal elongation	(Darnell et al., 2011)	Fmr1 null (Bakker et al., 1994) Fmr1 inactive (Zang et al., 2009)
Mbnl1-3		Mbnl2: Neuron-specific in brain; robust expression in lung		yes		Mbnl1 (Kanadia et al., 2003) Mbnl2 (Charizanis et al., 2012)
Msi1		Expressed in mitotic neuronal progenitors in embryonic and adult brain; also expressed in some astrocytes, some neurons (e.g. deep cerebellar nuclei, stellate neurons, as well as ovaries and small intestine (unknown cell type)	Msi2	?		Msi1 (Sakakibara et al., 2002)
ZBP	ZBP1 particularly well-defined functions in mRNA localization and translation	Widely expressed in brain and other tissues	ZBP2	?	(Hansen et al., 2004)