Cloning of an Apobec-1-binding protein that also interacts with apolipoprotein B mRNA and evidence for its involvement in RNA editing.

Apolipoprotein (apo)B mRNA editing is mediated by a multiprotein editosome complex. Apobec-1 is the catalytic component of this complex, but other proteins involved in editing have not been identified. We used the yeast two-hybrid system to identify an apobec-1-interacting protein, ABBP-1. ABBP-1 contains 331 amino acid residues and is identical to a previously reported human type A/B hnRNP except for a 47-residue insertion at its C-terminal region. It contains typical RNP motifs at its N-terminal half and glycine-rich motifs in the C-terminal region. Northern blot analysis indicates that ABBP-1 mRNA is distributed in multiple human tissues. By deletion analysis, we mapped the apobec-1-binding region to the glycine-rich domain. ABBP-1 also binds to apoB mRNA transcripts around the editing site and can be UV-cross-linked to them in vitro. Immnodepletion of ABBP-1 from an active apoB mRNA editing tissue extract inhibits its editing activity. Down-regulation of ABBP-1 in an apobec-1-expressing HepG2 cell line by transfection with an antisense ABBP-1 cDNA construct leads to inhibition of endogenous apoB mRNA editing. We conclude that ABBP-1 is an apobec-1-interacting protein that may play an important role in apoB mRNA editing.