WB 1:1,000. IF/ICC: 1:500-1:1,000

TATA-binding protein-associated factor 2N, also known as TATA-binding protein-associated factor 15 (TAF15) is a protein containing a single RNA recognition motif domain and a Zinc finger domain. An alternate for TAF15 is RBP56, for RNA binding protein 56kDa (1). It is a member of a family of 3 closely related mammalian RNA binding proteins, the other two members are being FUS/TLS and EWSR1 (2,3). TDP43 is a more distant relative of these three, and all four proteins have been implicated in various ways the etiology of various neurological diseases and cancers. Like TDP43,FUS/TLS and EWSR1, TAF15 is normally widely expressed in tissues and is localized primarily in thenucleus of cells (2,3). Point mutations in TAF15 may be associated with some forms of Lou Gehrig’sdisease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS (4). FUS/TLS and TDP43 proteinmutations and aggregation were previously known in various kinds of neurological disease including ALS and the related disease frontotemporal lobar degeneration (5). Some forms of cancer are caused by aberrant chromosomal fusions resulting in the production of oncoproteins containing segments of TAF15 fused to regions of other molecules, the same mechanism seen with FUS/TLS and especially EWSR1 (3). A screen for proteins likely to aggregate in yeast and Drosphila models also suggest TAF15 as a potential aggregation prone and disease causing protein when mutated, again like FUS/TLS, EWSR1 and TDP43 (6).