Dicer Proteins and Enzymes

Dicer encodes a protein possessing an RNA helicase motif containing a DEXH box in its amino terminus and an RNA motif in the carboxy terminus. The encoded protein functions as a ribonuclease and is required by the RNA interference and small temporal RNA (stRNA) pathways to produce the active small RNA component that represses gene expression. Two transcript variants encoding the same protein have been identified for this gene. [provided by RefSeq]