Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
GoGreen Membership

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Sci. STKE, 4 September 2007
Vol. 2007, Issue 402, p. tw322
[DOI: 10.1126/stke.4022007tw322]

EDITORS' CHOICE

Molecular Biology Not Lost In Translation

Guy Riddihough

Science, AAAS, Washington, DC 20005, USA

Protein synthesis by ribosomes normally requires that the messenger RNA (mRNA) template be capped at its 5' end with a modified nucleotide. Starved yeast can undergo a developmental switch to an invasive phenotype, during which most mRNAs are decapped, which prevents their translation by ribosomes. The genes responsible for the switch must therefore be translated in a cap-independent manner. Gilbert et al. now show that invasive growth-specific genes have internal ribosome entry sites (IRESs) in the unusually long 5' untranslated regions of their mRNAs that allow their translation. Unlike viral IRESs, these cellular IRESs seem to consist of an unstructured sequence of adenosines that recruits the poly-A binding protein, a configuration that can substitute for the 5' cap.

W. V. Gilbert, K. Zhou, T. K. Butler, J. A. Doudna, Cap-independent translation is required for starvation-induced differentiation in yeast. Science 317, 1224-1227 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]

Citation: G. Riddihough, Not Lost In Translation. Sci. STKE 2007, tw322 (2007).

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882)