DEAH Box Polypeptide 40 (DHX40)

DHX40 is a member of the DEAH box family of ATP-dependent RNA helicases. RNA helicases catalyze the unwinding of double-stranded RNA and play a role in RNA metabolism, including pre-mRNA splicing, ribosome biogenesis, and organellar gene expression.

Xu et al. (2002) cloned DHX40, which they called DDX40, during large-scale cDNA sequencing of clones obtained from a fetal brain cDNA library. The deduced 779-amino acid protein has a calculated molecular mass of 86 kD. DHX40 has a well-conserved DEAH box region and shares high amino acid identity with DHX8 and the yeast proteins Prp22 and Dhr1, both of which function in RNA processing. Northern blot analysis detected ubiquitous expression of a 3.6-kb DHX40 transcript.