Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay factors act in concert to regulate common mRNA targets

Oct 4, 2005RNA (New York, N.Y.)

Proteins that remove faulty mRNA work together to control the same mRNA targets

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) components are essential for cell proliferation in Drosophila.

UPF1, UPF2, UPF3, SMG1, SMG5, and SMG6 work together to regulate the expression of genes involved in various cellular functions.
The role of these proteins in mRNA decay has not diverged significantly across evolution.
Only a limited number of transcripts are regulated by individual NMD factors.
Most NMD targets in Drosophila are not similar to those found in yeast or human cells.
Differences in phenotypes across species after NMD inhibition may result from variations in the genes that are regulated.

AI simplified

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a surveillance pathway that degrades mRNAs containing nonsense codons, and regulates the expression of naturally occurring transcripts. While NMD is not essential in yeast or nematodes, UPF1, a key NMD effector, is essential in mice. Here we show that NMD components are required for cell proliferation in Drosophila. This raises the question of whether NMD effectors diverged functionally during evolution. To address this question, we examined expression profiles in Drosophila cells depleted of all known metazoan NMD components. We show that UPF1, UPF2, UPF3, SMG1, SMG5, and SMG6 regulate in concert the expression of a cohort of genes with functions in a wide range of cellular activities, including cell cycle progression. Only a few transcripts were regulated exclusively by individual factors, suggesting that these proteins act mainly in the NMD pathway and their role in mRNA decay has not diverged substantially. Finally, the vast majority of NMD targets in Drosophila are not orthologs of targets previously identified in yeast or human cells. Thus phenotypic differences observed across species following inhibition of NMD can be largely attributed to changes in the repertoire of regulated genes.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text ↗

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay factors act in concert to regulate common mRNA targets

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief

Abstract

Full Text

Related papers

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief