The ELAVL4 Knockout HAP1 Polyclonal Cells comprise a CRISPR/Cas9-edited polyclonal population of HAP1 cells in which the ELAVL4 gene has been disrupted, creating a loss-of-function model for studying neuronal RNA-binding protein function in a tractable genetic background. This knockout product is provided as a mixed polyclonal population, enabling researchers to investigate gene inactivation effects without clonal selection bias.
The HAP1 host cell line is a near-haploid human cell line derived from the male chronic myeloid leukemia cell line KBM-7. Its near-haploid karyotype simplifies gene editing and functional genomics studies by avoiding the confounding effects of heterozygosity, making HAP1 cells particularly useful for haploid genetic screens and targeted knockout analyses. The cell line retains key signaling pathways and is widely employed in molecular biology and cancer research contexts.
ELAVL4 encodes a neuron-specific RNA-binding protein that selectively recognizes AU-rich elements (AREs) in the 3?? untranslated regions of target mRNAs, stabilizing transcripts such as GAP-43, Tau, and neurofilament mRNAs and enhancing their translation. ELAVL4 function is activated downstream of neurotrophins NGF and BDNF via TrkA receptor signaling through MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways, and can also be transcriptionally regulated by NEUROD1 and ASCL1. It interacts with factors including RNA polymerase II, hnRNP A1, KSRP, eIF4E, and PABP to coordinate post-transcriptional gene regulation. The mechanistic ensemble promotes neuronal differentiation, neurite outgrowth, synaptic plasticity, and cell survival.
In the HAP1 cell background, disruption of ELAVL4 provides a simplified model to dissect the gene??s molecular contributions to mRNA stabilization and differentiation without the complexities of a full neuronal genetic network. While HAP1 is a leukemia-derived line, it supports retinoic acid-induced differentiation assays that can partially mimic neuronal-like transcriptional programs, allowing functional readouts of ELAVL4-dependent regulation. This polyclonal knockout population is especially suited for high-throughput screens examining neurotoxic insults, neurotrophin signaling, and neurodegenerative disease targets, as it maintains a near-diploid gene dosage for consistent protein-level comparisons.
Typical applications include RT-qPCR and western blotting to quantify changes in downstream targets such as c-Fos, p21, and Bcl-2 mRNAs and proteins, immunofluorescence imaging of neurite outgrowth following differentiation induction, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) to validate ELAVL4?CmRNA interactions, and luciferase reporter assays to assess ARE-mediated transcript stability. The model also supports cell viability studies under oxidative or metabolic stress to evaluate ELAVL4??s role in neuronal survival. For more details and technical specifications, please contact Ascent Research.
