The gene encompasses 18583 bp DNA and contains 8 exons (e.g. NCBI: NC_000012).

2766 bp mRNA
The 3-untranslated region (3UTR) of DENR was found to have a high number of uracyl (U)- and adenine (A)-rich sequences (AREs) (Mazan-Mamczarz and Gartenhaus, 2007).

Size: 198 amino acids; 22092 Da.

DENR is expressed in variety of tissues, with the highest quantity in skeletal and cardiac muscle. The protein level of DENR is up regulated in parallel with increasing cell density (Deyo et al., 1998). Very recently, it was found that this up regulation is controlled by the AUF-1 protein which binds to the 3UTR of DENR mRNA and in a cell density-dependent manner (Mazan-Mamczarz and Gartenhaus, 2007). Furthermore, Oh JJ. et al. showed that DENR expression is increased in association with HER-2 overexpression in ovarian and breast cancers (Oh et al., 1999).

Predominantly in the cytoplasm of 3T3 cells.

Until recently there was little published data regarding DENR function. Reinert et al. showed that the oncogene MCT-1 interacts with DENR in vivo and in vitro. DENR contains a SUI1 domain which is also found in translation initiation factor eIF1, where the SUI1 domain is involved in recognition of the translation initiation codon (Yoon and Donahue, 1992). Interestingly, DENR together with MCT-1 sediment in the translation initiation complex fraction in both human embryonic kidney cell cultures and lymphoid cell lines. This complex was shown to interact with the cap complex and to alter the mRNA translational profile of a subset of cancer-related mRNAs. This supports a model where MCT-1 exerts it ongogenic function, at least in part by recruiting the SUI1 domain containing DENR to the translation initiation complex, thereby modulating the translational profile (Reinert et al., 2006).

The SUI1 domain present in DENR is homologous to the SUI-1 domain found in eIF1. The SUI1 domain contains a secondary structure fold corresponding to that found in a number of ribosomal proteins and RNA-binding domains.