The perplexities of ZC3H12A self-mRNA regulation

The mechanisms regulating transcript turnover are key processes in the regulation of gene expression. The list of proteins involved in mRNAs' degradation is still growing, however, the details of RNase-mRNAs interactions are not fully understood. ZC3H12A is a recently discovered inflammation-related RNase engaged in the control of proinflammatory cytokine transcript turnover. ZC3H12A also regulates its own transcript half-live. Here, we studied the details of this regulation. Our results confirm the importance of the 3'UTR in ZC3H12A-dependent ZC3H12A mRNA degradation. We compared the mouse and human stemloop structures present in this region and discovered that the human conserved stem-loop structure is not sufficient for ZC3H12A-dependent degradation. However, this structure is important for the ZC3H12A mRNA post-transcriptional regulation. Our studies emphasize the importance of the neighboring features of the identified stem-loop structure for its biological activity. Removal of this region together with the stem-loop structure greatly inhibits the ZC3H12A regulation of the investigated 3'-untranslated region (3'UTR).