5'-3'Exoribonuclease 2 (XRN2)

XRN2 shares similarity with the mouse Dhm1 and the yeast dhp1 genes. The yeast gene is involved in homologous recombination and RNA metabolism, such as RNA synthesis and RNA trafficking. Complementation studies show that Dhm1 has a similar function in mouse as dhp1.Dhm1 is the mouse homolog of S. pombe dhp1+, which is involved in homologous recombination and RNA metabolism. By EST database searching with the sequence of mouse Dhm1 as query, Zhang et al. (1999) identified the human homolog, which they designated XRN2. XRN2 encodes a predicted 950-amino acid protein with 93% identity to Dhm1 and 54% and 42% homology to S. pombe Dhp1+ within putative functional N- and C-terminal regions, respectively.