Focus Quality Control
- The EMBO Journal (2008) 27, 471 - 481
- doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7601977
Subject Category:
Messenger RNA regulation: to translate or to degrade
Ann-Bin Shyu1,4, Miles F Wilkinson2 and Ambro van Hoof3,4
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas, Medical School, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, The University of Texas, Medical School, Houston, TX, USA
- These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence to:
Ann-Bin Shyu, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Texas, Medical School, 6431 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Tel: +1 713 500 6068; Fax: +1 713 500 0652; E-mail: Ann-Bin.Shyu@uth.tmc.edu
Received 10 November 2007; Accepted 6 December 2007
Abstract
Quality control of gene expression operates post-transcriptionally at various levels in eukaryotes. Once transcribed, mRNAs associate with a host of proteins throughout their lifetime. These mRNA–protein complexes (mRNPs) undergo a series of remodeling events that are influenced by and/or influence the translation and mRNA decay machinery. In this review we discuss how a decision to translate or to degrade a cytoplasmic mRNA is reached. Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) and microRNA (miRNA)-mediated mRNA silencing are provided as examples. NMD is a surveillance mechanism that detects and eliminates aberrant mRNAs whose expression would result in truncated proteins that are often deleterious to the organism. miRNA-mediated mRNA silencing is a mechanism that ensures a given protein is expressed at a proper level to permit normal cellular function. While NMD and miRNA-mediated mRNA silencing use different decision-making processes to determine the fate of their targets, both are greatly influenced by mRNP dynamics. In addition, both are linked to RNA processing bodies. Possible modes involving 3' untranslated region and its associated factors, which appear to play key roles in both processes, are discussed.
Keywords:
- microRNA,
- mRNA decay,
- NMD,
- P-bodies,
- translation
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