Structural diversity and functional implications of the eukaryotic TDP gene family.

TDP-43 is an RNA-binding protein that functions in mammalian cells in transcriptional repression and exon skipping. The gene encoding TDP-43 (HGMW-approved gene symbol TARDBP) is conserved in human, mouse, Drosophila melanogaster, and Caenorhabditis elegans. Sequence comparison of the coding regions of the TDP genes among the four taxa reveals an extraordinarily low rate of sequence divergence, suggesting that the TDP genes carry out essential functions in these organisms.