Transcriptional regulation. The protein is shown to involve in transcriptional regulation by different mechanism of actions dependent on each individual regulated gene and biological processes (Stevenson et al., 1998; Endoh et al., 1999; Yang et al., 2005; Kahlina et al., 2004; Wei and Hu, 2001; Warner et al., 2004). p68 may regulate gene transcription by direct interaction with transcription factors or activators, such as p53, ERalpha (Endoh et al., 1999; Bates et al., 2005), or by mediating chromatin remodeling, such as modulating chromatin remodeling complex (Carter et al., 2010).

Epithelial-Mesenchymal-Transition (EMT). p68 becomes phosphorylated at Y593 upon growth factor stimulation by c-Abl. The tyrosine phosphorylation of p68 mediates growth factor stimulated Epithelial-Mesenchymal-Transition (EMT) (Yang et al., 2006).

Other functions. (1) p68 RNA helicase is shown to unwind the human let-7 microRNA precursor duplex. The protein is required for let-7-directed silencing of gene expression (Salzman et al., 2007). p68 is an indispensible part of Drosha complex. Its activity is required for primary miRNA and rRNA processing (Fukuda et al., 2007). (2) It is also demonstrated that the RNA helicases p68/p72 and the noncoding RNA SRA are coregulators of MyoD and skeletal muscle differentiation (Caretti et al., 2006). (3) Phosphorylation of p68 at Thr residues mediates cell apoptosis (Yang et al., 2007).