Protein arginine methylation is catalyzed by arginine methyltransferases. The bulk of methylated arginine residues in
eukaryotic cells are found in heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs), RNA-binding proteins that play essential
roles in the metabolism of nuclear pre-mRNA. Lin et al. (1996) identified a rat cDNA encoding PRMT1 (protein-arginine
N-methyltransferase 1; EC 2.1.1.23 ). Recombinant PRMT1 methylated histones and hnRNPA1 in vitro.
Abramovich et al. (1997) proposed that protein methylation, like phosphorylation, may be an important signaling mechanism
for certain cytokine receptors.
NCBI Summary:
This gene encodes a member of the protein arginine N-methyltransferase (PRMT) family. Post-translational modification of target proteins by PRMTs plays an important regulatory role in many biological processes, whereby PRMTs methylate arginine residues by transferring methyl groups from S-adenosyl-L-methionine to terminal guanidino nitrogen atoms. The encoded protein is a type I PRMT and is responsible for the majority of cellular arginine methylation activity. Increased expression of this gene may play a role in many types of cancer. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding multiple isoforms have been observed for this gene, and a pseudogene of this gene is located on the long arm of chromosome 5. [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2011]
General function
Intracellular signaling cascade, RNA binding
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Cellular localization
Cytoplasmic
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Ovarian function
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Expression regulated by
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Ovarian localization
Oocyte
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Comparative analysis of oocyte transcript profiles reveals a high degree of conservation among species. Vall?M et al. Cross-species comparison of gene expression is a powerful approach for discovering genes that have been conserved throughout evolution. Conserved genes are presumably very important in the mechanisms related to the unique molecular functions in oocytes. The objective of this study was to identify genes expressed in the oocyte and conserved across three diverse vertebrate species. We report the global gene expression profiles of Bos taurus and Xenopus laevis oocytes on an NIA mouse development microarray that consists of 60-mer oligonucleotide probes representing more than 20,000 mouse transcripts derived from stem cell, oocyte, and early embryo cDNA libraries. Analysis based on intensity values revealed that 9853 and 10,046 genes are expressed in bovine and Xenopus oocytes respectively. Furthermore, previously published microarray data on preimplantation development in the mouse were used for a comparative analysis of global oocyte gene expression profiles. Interestingly, a substantial proportion of the genes expressed in mouse oocytes is conserved between the three species (74%, 7275 genes). Moreover, functional annotation of these conserved oocyte-expressed genes confirmed that certain functions are conserved among the three species. RNA metabolism and cell cycle were among the over-represented Gene Ontology terms in the biological process category. Finally, a pattern-matching analysis identified 208 conserved maternally expressed genes. Results from these cross-species hybridizations allowed numerous genes expressed in oocytes and conserved between Mus musculus, B. taurus, and X. laevis to be identified. This comparative analysis of oocyte transcript profiles revealed a high degree of conservation among species.