Work

A synthetic A tail rescues yeast nuclear accumulation of a ribozyme-terminated transcript

Year: 2004

Type: article

Abstract: To investigate the role of 3' end formation in yeast mRNA export, we replaced the mRNA cleavage and polyadenylation signal with a self-cleaving hammerhead ribozyme element. The resulting RNA is unadenylated and accumulates near its site of synthesis. Nonetheless, a significant fraction of this RNA reaches the cytoplasm. Nuclear accumulation was relieved by insertion of a stretch of DNA-encoded adenosine residues immediately upstream of the ribozyme element (a synthetic A tail). This indicates that a 3' stretch of adenosines can promote export, independently of cleavage and polyadenylation. We further show that a synthetic A tail-containing RNA is unaffected in 3' end formation mutant strains, in which a normally cleaved and polyadenylated RNA accumulates within nuclei. Our results support a model in which a polyA tail contributes to efficient mRNA progression away from the gene, most likely through the action of the yeast polyA-tail binding protein Pab1p.

Source: RNA

DOI: 10.1261/rna.7166704

Authors: KEN DOWER, NICOLAS KUPERWASSER, HOURA MERRIKH, MICHAEL ROSBASH

Institutions: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Brandeis University

Language: English

Topic: RNA Research and Splicing

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: G539877634, G6379944258