An Escherichia coli-Based Genetic Strategy for Characterizing RNA Binding Proteins

In recent years, interest in RNA-binding proteins (RNA-BPs) and RNA-protein interactions has grown considerably. An important reason for this interest is the increased recognition that RNA-BPs are involved in a wide variety of critical viral and cellular processes including transcription, translation, RNA processing, RNA transport, gene regulation, and splicing. A second reason lies in the technical advances and the generation of new methods that have simplified the analysis of RNA-protein interactions. Nevertheless, a thorough analysis of an RNA-BP is not a trivial task, and, at present, there are only a few RNA-BPs that have been characterized in detail.