Pasha (protein)

Pasha, also known as DGCR8 in vertebrates, is a protein localized to the cell nucleus that is required for microRNA processing. It binds to Drosha, an RNase III enzyme, to form the Microprocessor complex that cleaves a primary transcript known as pri-miRNA to a characteristic stem-loop structure known as a pre-miRNA, which is then further processed to miRNA fragments by the enzyme Dicer. Pasha contains an RNA-binding domain and is thought to bind pri-miRNA to stabilize it for processing by Drosha.