CELE_F46A9.6, F46A9.6

mec-8 encodes a protein with two RNA recognition motifs (RRM); mec-8 is required for proper development of body wall muscle and chemosensory and touch receptor neurons and as a result, for embryonic and larval development, sensory neuron fasciculation, and mechanosensation; MEC-8 functions as an mRNA processing factor whose activity is required for alternative splicing of genes such as unc-52/perlecan, with which it interacts genetically to produce synthetic lethality at the two-fold stage of embryonic elongation; mec-8 mutations also exhibit synthetic lethality with mutations in a number of other genes, including the sym genes and daf-18; mec-8; unc-52 synthetic lethality is suppressed by mutations in smu-1 and smu-2 which both encode homologs of mammalian spliceosome-associated proteins; mec-8 is broadly expressed in the embryo and expressed in hypodermal and neuronal tissues in larvae.

CELE_F35H8.5, elr-1, cel-1, F35H8.5

exc-7 encodes an ELAV, an mRNA-binding protein homologous to Drosophila ELAV and human HuC/D (OMIM:603458, 168360, autoimmune antigens associated with paraneoplastic neurologic disorders); EXC-7 is required for formation of the tailspike and the excretory cell canals; exc-7 mutations enhance defects produced by mutations in exc-3, predicted to encode a peptidase, and sma-1, which encodes beta H-spectrin, a key component of the apical cytokeleton of polarized epithelial cells such as the excretory cell; in vitro, EXC-7 can bind the sma-1 mRNA 3' UTR, and thus is predicted to regulate SMA-1 expression in vivo; EXC-7 is expressed transiently in the excretory cell nucleus during mid-embryogenesis and during larval stages is detected in the pharynx, nerve ring, and nerve cord nuclei.