TY - JOUR
T1 - A Role for REP sequences in regulating translation
AU - Liang, Wenxing
AU - Rudd, Kenneth E.
AU - Deutscher, Murray P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants GM16317 to M.P.D. and GM58560 to K.E.R. from the NIH and to W.L. from the Taishan Scholar Construction Foundation of Shandong Province. We thank Dr. Christopher Hayes for tmRNA (DD) antibody and Dr. Chaitanya Jain for RNA helicase constructs. We also thank members of the laboratory for critical comments on the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2015/5/7
Y1 - 2015/5/7
N2 - Repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) sequences are highly structured elements found downstream of ~500 genes in Escherichia coli that result in extensive stem-loop structures in their mRNAs. However, their physiological role has remained elusive. Here, we show that REP sequences can downregulate translation, but only if they are within 15 nt of a termination codon; a spacing of 16 nt has no effect, suggesting that the REP element acts to stall ribosome movement. Ribosome stalling leads to cleavage of the mRNA and induction of the trans-translation process. Using nrdAB as a model, we find that its regulation can be partially reversed by overexpression ofRNA helicases and can be fully overcome upon UV stress, emphasizing the importance of this regulatory process. Since 50% of REP-associated genes have these elements within the critical 15 nt, these findings identify a regulatory mechanism with the potential to affect translation from a large number of genes.
AB - Repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) sequences are highly structured elements found downstream of ~500 genes in Escherichia coli that result in extensive stem-loop structures in their mRNAs. However, their physiological role has remained elusive. Here, we show that REP sequences can downregulate translation, but only if they are within 15 nt of a termination codon; a spacing of 16 nt has no effect, suggesting that the REP element acts to stall ribosome movement. Ribosome stalling leads to cleavage of the mRNA and induction of the trans-translation process. Using nrdAB as a model, we find that its regulation can be partially reversed by overexpression ofRNA helicases and can be fully overcome upon UV stress, emphasizing the importance of this regulatory process. Since 50% of REP-associated genes have these elements within the critical 15 nt, these findings identify a regulatory mechanism with the potential to affect translation from a large number of genes.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.molcel.2015.03.019
DO - 10.1016/j.molcel.2015.03.019
M3 - Article
C2 - 25891074
AN - SCOPUS:84928929668
VL - 58
SP - 431
EP - 439
JO - Molecular Cell
JF - Molecular Cell
SN - 1097-2765
IS - 3
ER -