Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 2C1 (EIF2C1)

EIF2C1 encodes a member of the Argonaute family of proteins which play a role in RNA interference. The encoded protein is highly basic, and contains a PAZ domain and a PIWI domain. It may interact with dicer1 and play a role in short-interfering-RNA-mediated gene silencing. This gene is located on chromosome 1 in a cluster of closely related family members including argonaute 3, and argonaute 4.To obtain genomic sequence information, they isolated a P1 genomic clone containing the EIF2C1 locus. The human EIF2C1 gene encodes a protein of 857 amino acids. The 2,571-bp open reading frame is flanked by 238 bp of 5-prime sequence and an extremely large 3-prime untranslated region with multiple short repeated segments composed of mono-, tri-, or quatronucleotides interspersed throughout.