Effect of short 5′ UTRs on protein synthesis in two biological kingdoms
Efficient ribosomal protein synthesis is dependent on cis-acting elements in the 5′ untranslated region ( UTR) of mRNAs. Between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, the sequence and location of these elements differ to the extent of not being functionally interchangeable. We explored the possibility of cons...
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Published in | Gene Vol. 222; no. 1; pp. 91 - 97 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Netherlands
Elsevier B.V
05.11.1998
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Efficient ribosomal protein synthesis is dependent on
cis-acting elements in the 5′ untranslated region (
UTR) of mRNAs. Between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, the sequence and location of these elements differ to the extent of not being functionally interchangeable. We explored the possibility of constructing bifunctional
UTRs that could direct translation in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. A variant of a
UTR from
ner of phage Mu (
ner-ACC) enhanced protein synthesis in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate, and it was compared to a
lacZ-CTA, containing the λ
cro RBS and the
Escherichia coli lacZ spacer. Several mutants in the −3 to −1 regions of both
lacZ-CTA and
ner-ACC were tested in rabbit reticulocyte lysate and
E. coli to select
UTRs that were optimized simultaneously for both biological kingdoms. The
lacZ-ATC proved 217-fold more effective than
ner-ACC in this cross-species ability to enhance translation. The
lacZ-ACC and
ner-ATC were 83- and 78-fold, respectively, better than
ner-ACC. We conclude that short
UTRs (12–15
nt in length) can be fine-tuned in the −9 to −1 regions to enhance protein synthesis concurrently in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In related studies, we show that nt at the −3 to −1 region of mRNAs exert an enormous impact on synthesis of proteins in
E. coli. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0378-1119 1879-0038 |
DOI: | 10.1016/S0378-1119(98)00470-3 |