The MAGOH paralogs - MAGOH, MAGOHB and their multiple isoforms

A central processing event in eukaryotic gene expression is splicing. Concurrent with splicing, the core-EJC proteins, eIF4A3 and RBM8A-MAGOH heterodimer are deposited 24 bases upstream of newly formed exon-exon junctions. One of the core-EJC proteins, MAGOH contains a paralog MAGOHB, and this paralog pair is conserved across vertebrates. Upon analysis of the splice variants of MAGOH-paralogs, we have found the presence of alternate protein isoforms which are also evolutionarily conserved. Further, comparison of the amino acid sequence of the principal and alternate protein isoforms has revealed absence of key amino acid residues in the alternate isoforms. The conservation of principal and alternate isoforms correlates to the importance of MAGOH and MAGOHB across vertebrates.