Small Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Polypeptide B2 (SNRPB2)

SNRPB2 associates with stem loop IV of U2 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein (U2 snRNP) in the presence of snRNP-A'. The encoded protein may play a role in pre-mRNA splicing. Autoantibodies from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus frequently recognize epitopes on the encoded protein. Two transcript variants encoding the same protein have been found for this gene.

By screening a human cell expression library with autoimmune sera from patients with SLE or other rheumatic diseases, Habets et al. (1987) isolated a cDNA encoding SNRPB2. The predicted 225-amino acid protein has an apparent molecular mass of 26.5 kD by SDS-PAGE.