Acheron, a novel member of the Lupus Antigen family, is induced during the programmed cell death of skeletal muscles in the moth Manduca sexta.

In order to identify novel genes associated with the initiation of programmed cell death during development, we employed a differential screening protocol to isolate cDNAs that were induced when the intersegmental muscles (ISM) of the moth Manduca sexta become committed to die at the end of metamorphosis. In this report we provide the first description of Acheron (Achn), a novel protein that was isolated in this screen. Acheron contains three Lupus antigen (La) repeats, nuclear localization and export (NLS and NES) signals, and an RNA recognition motif. Achn defines a new subfamily of La proteins that appears to have branched from authentic La protein relatively late in metazoan evolution. Achn is widely expressed in various insect, mouse and human tissues. Consistent with its expression during ISM death, Achn has been shown in separate studies to control muscle differentiation and apoptosis in both mice and zebrafish. These data define Achn as a newly discovered regulatory molecule that presumably mediates a variety of developmental and homeostatic processes in animals.