ERI-1 Background Information Helicase with RNase motif, more commonly designated Dicer, cleaves double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) in the RNA interference and small temporal RNA (stRNA) pathways, producing active small RNA components (siRNAs) which target the destruction of RNA and repress gene expression. Human Dicer cleaves dsRNA independent of ATP. The 3’-5’ exonuclease ERI-1, also known as Protein 3'hExo, degrades Histone mRNA after replication and may be involved in the regulation of RNA interference. ERI-1 has a high affinity for the stem-loop structure of replication-dependent Histone pre-mRNAs. It requires the 5'-ACCCA-3' sequence present in stem-loop structure. ERI-1 and a stem-loop binding protein (SLBP) target opposite faces of a unique highly conserved stem-loop RNA scaffold towards the 3' end of Histone mRNA.
