Article
- The EMBO Journal (2007) 26, 2327 - 2338
- doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7601679
Published online: 19 April 2007
Translation of nonSTOP mRNA is repressed post-initiation in mammalian cells
Nobuyoshi Akimitsu1, Junichi Tanaka2 and Jerry Pelletier3
- Institute for Biological Resources and Functions, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki, Japan
- Department of Chemistry, Biology, and Marine Sciences, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan
- Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, McIntyre Medical Sciences Building, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Correspondence to:
Nobuyoshi Akimitsu, Institute for Biological Resources and Functions, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-1-1, Higashi, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan. Tel.: +81 29 861 6085; Fax: +81 29 861 6095; E-mail: nobu.akimitsu@aist.go.jp
Received 22 November 2006; Accepted 15 March 2007
Abstract
We investigated the fate of aberrant mRNAs lacking in-frame termination codons (called nonSTOP mRNA) in mammalian cells. We found that translation of nonSTOP mRNA was considerably repressed although a corresponding reduction of mRNA was not observed. The repression appears to be post-initiation since (i) repressed nonSTOP mRNAs were associated with polysomes, (ii) translation of IRES-initiated and uncapped nonSTOP mRNA were repressed, and (iii) protein production from nonSTOP mRNA associating with polysomes was significantly reduced when used to program an in vitro run-off translation assay. NonSTOP mRNAs distributed into lighter polysome fractions compared to control mRNAs encoding a stop codon, and a significant amount of heterogeneous polypeptides were produced during in vitro translation of nonSTOP RNAs, suggesting premature termination of ribosomes translating nonSTOP mRNA. Moreover, a run-off translation assay using hippuristanol and RNAse protection assays suggested the presence of a ribosome stalled at the 3' end of nonSTOP mRNAs. Taken together, these data indicate that ribosome stalling at the 3' end of nonSTOP mRNAs can block translation by preventing upstream translation events.
Keywords:
- nonSTOP,
- ribosome,
- RNA surveillance,
- translational repression
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