Zinc knuckle protein; involved in nuclear RNA processing and degradation as a component of the TRAMP complex; stimulates the poly(A) polymerase activity of Pap2p in vitro; AIR1 has a paralog, AIR2, that arose from the whole genome duplication; although Air1p and Air2p are homologous TRAMP subunits, they have nonredundant roles in regulation of substrate specificity of the exosome