DEAD Box Polypeptide 50 (DDX50)

DDX50 belongs to the RNA helicase family of proteins involved in unwinding double-stranded RNA during transcription and pre-mRNA splicing, ribosomal RNA synthesis, translation, RNA transport, and RNA stability and degradation. RNA helicases have an Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp (DEAD) motif within the catalytic domain, which gives the family its name.DDX50 encodes a DEAD box enzyme that may be involved in ribosomal RNA synthesis or processing. This gene and DDX21, also called RH-II/GuA, have similar genomic structures and are in tandem orientation on chromosome 10, suggesting that the two genes arose by gene duplication in evolution.  Alternative splicing of this gene generates multiple transcript variants, but the full length nature of all the other variants but one has not been defined.