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RNA binding proteins (RBPs) play an important role not only in nuclear gene expression, but also in cytosolic events, including RNA transport, localization, translation, and stability. Although over 200 RBPs are predicted from the Arabidopsis genome alone, relatively little is known about these proteins in plants as many exhibit no homology to known RBPs in other eukaryotes. Furthermore, RBPs likely have low expression levels making them difficult to identify and study. As part of our continuing efforts to understand plant cytosolic gene expression and the factors involved, we employed a combination of affinity chromatography and proteomic techniques to enrich for low abundance RBPs in developing rice seed. Our results have been compiled into RiceRBP (http://www.bioinformatics2.wsu.edu/RiceRBP), a database that contains 257 experimentally identified proteins, many of which have not previously been predicted to be RBPs. For each of the identified proteins, RiceRBP provides information on transcript and protein sequence, predicted protein domains, details of the experimental identification, and whether antibodies have been generated for public use. In addition, tools are available to analyze expression patterns for the identified genes, view phylogentic relationships and search for orthologous proteins. RiceRBP is a valuable tool for the community in the study of plant RBPs.

RNA-binding proteins play critical roles at multiple steps during gene expression, including mRNA transport and translation. mRNA transport is particularly important in rice (Oryza sativa L.) in order to ensure the proper localization of the prolamine and glutelin seed storage proteins. However, relatively little information is available about RNA-binding proteins that have been isolated or characterized in plants. The RiceRBP database is a novel resource for the analysis of RNA-binding proteins in rice. RiceRBP contains 257 experimentally identified RNA-binding proteins, which are derived from at least 221 distinct rice genes. Many of the identified proteins catalogued in RiceRBP had not previously been annotated or predicted to bind RNA. RiceRBP provides tools to facilitate the analysis of the identified RNA-binding proteins, including information about predicted protein domains, phylogenetic relationships, and expression patterns of the identified genes. Importantly, RiceRBP also contains tools to search and analyze predicted RNA-binding protein orthologs in other plant species. We anticipate that the data and analysis tools provided by RiceRBP should facilitate the study of plant RNA-binding proteins. RiceRBP is available at http://www.bioinformatics2.wsu.edu/RiceRBP.