DEAD Box Polypeptide 24 (DDX24)

DDX24 encodes a DEAD box protein, which shows little similarity to any of the other known human DEAD box proteins, but shows a high similarity to mouse Ddx24 at the amino acid level.The deduced 859-amino acid human protein is 79% identical to the mouse protein but only 40% identical to other human family members in the core region. DDX24 contains all the conserved DDX motifs, including those for helicase, ATPase, and RNA-interaction activities, but it has a 150-amino acid stretch between motifs I and Ia instead of the common 24- to 42-amino acid stretch. Northern blot analysis revealed ubiquitous expression of a 3.0-kb transcript, with highest levels in heart and brain and barely detectable levels in thymus and small intestine.