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The mating response cascade does not modulate changes in the steady‐state level of target mRNAs through control of mRNA stability
Author(s) -
Kitchen Chad M.,
Leung Sara W.,
Corbett Anita H.,
Murphy T. J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
yeast
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.923
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1097-0061
pISSN - 0749-503X
DOI - 10.1002/yea.1661
Subject(s) - biology , messenger rna , transcription factor , signal transduction , gene expression , transcription (linguistics) , saccharomyces cerevisiae , mutant , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , linguistics , philosophy
Abstract Many extracellular signals trigger changes in gene expression by altering the steady‐state level of target transcripts. This modulation of transcript levels is typically ascribed to changes in transcription of target genes; however, there are numerous examples of changes in mRNA processing and stability that contribute to the overall change in transcript levels following signalling pathway activation. The α‐factor‐stimulated mating pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a receptor‐operated MAP kinase cascade that results in increased levels of a large number of target mRNA transcripts when stimulated acutely. A previous study identified many of the transcripts modulated in response to α‐factor and argued, based on genetic studies, that the response occurred solely at the level of gene transcription (Roberts et al. , 2000). We directly examined whether enhanced mRNA stability contributes to the increase in the steady‐state level of α‐factor target transcripts by exploiting a temperature‐sensitive RNA Polymerase II mutant, a Ste12 transcription factor import mutant, and tet‐regulated synthetic mating factor minigene reporters. Examination of a panel of α‐factor‐responsive transcripts reveals no change in mRNA stability in response to α‐factor stimulation, providing direct evidence that this signal transduction pathway in S. cerevisiae does not function through modulating transcript stability. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.