mRNA degradation and maturation in prokaryotes: the global players

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 491-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumaya Laalami ◽  
Harald Putzer

AbstractThe degradation of messenger RNA is of universal importance for controlling gene expression. It directly affects protein synthesis by modulating the amount of mRNA available for translation. Regulation of mRNA decay provides an efficient means to produce just the proteins needed and to rapidly alter patterns of protein synthesis. In bacteria, the half-lives of individual mRNAs can differ by as much as two orders of magnitude, ranging from seconds to an hour. Most of what we know today about the diverse mechanisms of mRNA decay and maturation in prokaryotes comes from studies of the two model organisms Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. Their evolutionary distance provided a large picture of potential pathways and enzymes involved in mRNA turnover. Among them are three ribonucleases, two of which have been discovered only recently, which have a truly general role in the initiating events of mRNA degradation: RNase E, RNase J and RNase Y. Their enzymatic characteristics probably determine the strategies of mRNA metabolism in the organism in which they are present. These ribonucleases are coded, alone or in various combinations, in all prokaryotic genomes, thus reflecting how mRNA turnover has been adapted to different ecological niches throughout evolution.

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Boehm ◽  
Jennifer V. Gerbracht ◽  
Marie-Charlotte Marx ◽  
Niels H. Gehring

Abstract The turnover of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) is a key regulatory step of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. Due to the complexity of the mammalian degradation machinery, the contribution of decay factors to the directionality of mRNA decay is poorly understood. Here we characterize a molecular tool to interrogate mRNA turnover via the detection of XRN1-resistant decay fragments (xrFrag). Using nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) as a model pathway, we establish xrFrag analysis as a robust indicator of accelerated 5′–3′ mRNA decay. In tethering assays, monitoring xrFrag accumulation allows to distinguish decapping and endocleavage activities from deadenylation. Moreover, xrFrag analysis of mRNA degradation induced by miRNAs, AU-rich elements (AREs) as well as the 3′ UTRs of cytokine mRNAs reveals the contribution of 5′–3′ decay and endonucleolytic cleavage. Our work uncovers formerly unrecognized modes of mRNA turnover and establishes xrFrag as a powerful tool for RNA decay analyses.


eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trinh To Tat ◽  
Patricia A Maroney ◽  
Sangpen Chamnongpol ◽  
Jeff Coller ◽  
Timothy W Nilsen

MicroRNAs are small (22 nucleotide) regulatory molecules that play important roles in a wide variety of biological processes. These RNAs, which bind to targeted mRNAs via limited base pairing interactions, act to reduce protein production from those mRNAs. Considerable evidence indicates that miRNAs destabilize targeted mRNAs by recruiting enzymes that function in normal mRNA decay and mRNA degradation is widely thought to occur when mRNAs are in a ribosome free state. Nevertheless, when examined, miRNA targeted mRNAs are invariably found to be polysome associated; observations that appear to be at face value incompatible with a simple decay model. Here, we provide evidence that turnover of miRNA-targeted mRNAs occurs while they are being translated. Cotranslational mRNA degradation is initiated by decapping and proceeds 5’ to 3’ behind the last translating ribosome. These results provide an explanation for a long standing mystery in the miRNA field.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia A. Bicknell ◽  
Emiliano P. Ricci

Messenger RNA (mRNA) translation and mRNA degradation are important determinants of protein output, and they are interconnected. Previously, it was thought that translation of an mRNA, as a rule, prevents its degradation. mRNA surveillance mechanisms, which degrade mRNAs as a consequence of their translation, were considered to be exceptions to this rule. Recently, however, it has become clear that many mRNAs are degraded co-translationally, and it has emerged that codon choice, by influencing the rate of ribosome elongation, affects the rate of mRNA decay. In this review, we discuss the links between translation and mRNA stability, with an emphasis on emerging data suggesting that codon optimality may regulate mRNA degradation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 189 (5) ◽  
pp. 813-827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Je-Hyun Yoon ◽  
Eui-Ju Choi ◽  
Roy Parker

Translation and messenger RNA (mRNA) degradation are important sites of gene regulation, particularly during stress where translation and mRNA degradation are reprogrammed to stabilize bulk mRNAs and to preferentially translate mRNAs required for the stress response. During stress, untranslating mRNAs accumulate both in processing bodies (P-bodies), which contain some translation repressors and the mRNA degradation machinery, and in stress granules, which contain mRNAs stalled in translation initiation. How signal transduction pathways impinge on proteins modulating P-body and stress granule formation and function is unknown. We show that during stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Dcp2 is phosphorylated on serine 137 by the Ste20 kinase. Phosphorylation of Dcp2 affects the decay of some mRNAs and is required for Dcp2 accumulation in P-bodies and specific protein interactions of Dcp2 and for efficient formation of stress granules. These results demonstrate that Ste20 has an unexpected role in the modulation of mRNA decay and translation and that phosphorylation of Dcp2 is an important control point for mRNA decapping.


2005 ◽  
Vol 25 (22) ◽  
pp. 9764-9772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hudan Liu ◽  
Megerditch Kiledjian

ABSTRACT mRNA degradation occurs through distinct pathways, one primarily from the 5′ end of the mRNA and the second from the 3′ end. Decay from the 3′ end generates the m7GpppN cap dinucleotide, which is subsequently hydrolyzed to m7Gp and ppN in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by a scavenger decapping activity termed Dcs1p. Although Dcs1p functions in the last step of mRNA turnover, we demonstrate that its activity modulates earlier steps of mRNA decay. Disruption of the DCS1 gene manifests a threefold increase of the TIF51A mRNA half-life. Interestingly, the hydrolytic activity of Dcs1p was essential for the altered mRNA turnover, as Dcs1p, but not a catalytically inactive Dcs1p mutant, complemented the increased mRNA stability. Mechanistic analysis revealed that 5′ to 3′ exoribonucleolytic activity was impeded in the dcs1Δ strain, resulting in the accumulation of uncapped mRNA. These data define a new role for the Dcs1p scavenger decapping enzyme and demonstrate a novel mechanism whereby the final step in the 3′ mRNA decay pathway can influence 5′ to 3′ exoribonucleolytic activity.


2002 ◽  
Vol 357 (1420) ◽  
pp. 521-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shao Jun Tang ◽  
Erin M. Schuman

In neurons, many proteins that are involved in the transduction of synaptic activity and the expression of neural plasticity are specifically localized at synapses. How these proteins are targeted is not clearly understood. One mechanism is synaptic protein synthesis. According to this idea, messenger RNA (mRNA) translation from the polyribosomes that are observed at the synaptic regions provides a local source of synaptic proteins. Although an increasing number of mRNA species has been detected in the dendrite, information about the synaptic synthesis of specific proteins in a physiological context is still limited. The physiological function of synaptic synthesis of specific proteins in synaptogenesis and neural plasticity expression remains to be shown. Experiments aimed at understanding the mechanisms and functions f synaptic protein synthesis might provide important information about the molecular nature of neural plasticity.


1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 535-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
B C Gliniak ◽  
L S Park ◽  
L R Rohrschneider

The murine myeloid precursor cell line FDC-P1/MAC simultaneously expresses receptors for multi-colony-stimulating factor (CSF), granulocyte-macrophage (GM)-CSF, and macrophage (M)-CSF. Growth of FDC-P1/MAC cells in either multi-CSF or GM-CSF results in the posttranscriptional suppression of M-CSF receptor (c-fms proto-oncogene) expression. We use the term transregulation to describe this control of receptor expression and have further characterized this regulatory process. The removal of FDC-P1/MAC cells from GM-CSF stimulation resulted in the re-expression of c-fms mRNA independent of M-CSF stimulation and new protein synthesis. Switching FDC-P1/MAC cells from growth in M-CSF to GM-CSF caused the selective degradation of c-fms mRNA within 6 h after factor switching. Blocking protein synthesis or gene transcription with metabolic inhibitors effectively prevented GM-CSF stimulated degradation of c-fms mRNA. These results suggest that the transregulation of c-fms transcripts by GM-CSF requires the transcriptional activation of a selective mRNA degradation factor. In vitro analysis, the use of cytoplasmic cell extracts, provided evidence that a ribonuclease is preferentially active in GM-CSF stimulated cells, although the specificity for mRNA degradation in vitro is broader than seen in vivo. Together, these data suggest that GM-CSF can dominantly transregulate the level of c-fms transcript through the transcriptional activation of a ribonuclease degradation system.


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