Staufen (protein)

Staufen is a protein product of a maternally expressed gene first identified in Drosophila melanogaster.

The protein has been implicated in helping regulate genes important in determination of gradients that set up the anterior posterior axis such as bicoid and oskar.

[1] It is involved in targeting of the messenger RNA encoding these genes to the correct pole of the egg cell.

[8] As the oocyte develops, the proteins condense at the anterior margins and the posterior pole of the egg cell.

[6] Similarly Staufen proteins are also part of a multistep process that localizes Bicoid mRNA to the anterior end of the early embryo, and these proteins are also responsible for asymmetric dispersion of prospero mRNA as the embryonic neuroblast divides.