This fungal family includes eIF4E-associated protein (Eap1) from yeast, which plays a role in cell growth and is implicated in the TOR signaling cascade. Eap1 binds to eIF4E and regulates translation. It competes with eIF4G (the large subunit of the cap-binding complex, eukaryotic initiation factor 4F (eIF4F)) for binding to eIF4E and accelerates mRNA degradation by promoting decapping [1,2,4,5]. It associates with Puf5p and Dhh1p, being essential for Puf5p mediated repression [4]. This family also includes the uncharacterised protein from S. pombe SPCC14G10.04 (Swiss:O74417) which has been shown to interact with eIF4E, 4F complex subunits [3].

1: Eap1p, a novel eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-associated protein in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Cosentino GP, Schmelzle T, Haghighat A, Helliwell SB, Hall MN, Sonenberg N; Mol Cell Biol. 2000;20:4604-4613. PMID:10848587

2: The yeast eIF4E-associated protein Eap1p attenuates GCN4 translation upon TOR-inactivation. Matsuo R, Kubota H, Obata T, Kito K, Ota K, Kitazono T, Ibayashi S, Sasaki T, Iida M, Ito T; FEBS Lett. 2005;579:2433-2438. PMID:15848184

3: A Proteome-wide Fission Yeast Interactome Reveals Network Evolution Principles from Yeasts to Human. Vo TV, Das J, Meyer MJ, Cordero NA, Akturk N, Wei X, Fair BJ, Degatano AG, Fragoza R, Liu LG, Matsuyama A, Trickey M, Horibata S, Grimson A, Yamano H, Yoshida M, Roth FP, Pleiss JA, Xia Y, Yu H; Cell. 2016;164:310-323. PMID:26771498

4: A eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-binding protein promotes mRNA decapping and is required for PUF repression. Blewett NH, Goldstrohm AC; Mol Cell Biol. 2012;32:4181-4194. PMID:22890846

5: The eIF4E-binding protein Eap1p functions in Vts1p-mediated transcript decay. Rendl LM, Bieman MA, Vari HK, Smibert CA; PLoS One. 2012;7:e47121. PMID:23071728