DAZ (Deleted in Azoospermia) proteins are found almost exclusively in germ cells in distant animal species. Deletion or mutations of their encoding genes usually impair either oogenesis or spermatogenesis or both. The family includes three members, Boule (or Boll), Dazl (or Dazla) and DAZ, encoding RNA binding proteins. Boule is the ancestral gene that is conserved from flies to humans, whereas, Dazl arose in the early vertebrate lineage and Daz arrived on Y chromosome during primate evolution. Basically, DAZ family proteins have been proposed to function as adaptors for target mRNA transport and activators of their translation. These proteins have a highly conserved RNA recognition motif (RRM) (see <PDOC00030>) for binding target mRNAs and one (Boule and Dazl) or multiple copies (Daz) of the DAZ domain, a 24 amino acids motif rich in Asn, Tyr, and Gln residues. The function of the DAZ domain is not known, but may be involved in protein-protein interactions [1,2,3,4,5].

The profile we developed covers the entire DAZ domain.