DEADSouth is a germ plasm specific DEAD-box RNA helicase in Xenopus related to eIF4A

DEADSouth was selected in a screen for localized RNAs in Xenopus oocytes. In situ hybridization analysis shows that DEADSouth localizes to the vegetal cortex via the mitochondrial cloud early in oogenesis and segregates with germ plasm during early embryogenesis. These results lend further support for the general concept that the role of the early RNA localization pathway in Xenopus is to localize germ cell components (reviewed in King, M.L., Zhou, Y., Bubunenko, M. , 1999. BioEssays 21, 546-557). Further analysis shows that DEADSouth is a germline specific RNA, found exclusively within the germ plasm of oocytes and PGCs, as well as in male germ cells. Sequence comparisons with DEADSouth show it to be a member of a small sub-family of the DEAD-box RNA-dependent helicases related to eIF4A.