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The role of Upf proteins in modulating the translation read‐through of nonsense‐containing transcripts
Author(s) -
Wang Weirong,
Czaplinski Kevin,
Rao Yu,
Peltz Stuart W.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1093/emboj/20.4.880
Subject(s) - nonsense , biology , nonsense mutation , phenotype , nonsense mediated decay , genetics , translation (biology) , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , saccharomyces cerevisiae , messenger rna , rna , missense mutation , rna splicing
The yeast UPF1 , UPF2 and UPF3 genes encode trans ‐acting factors of the nonsense‐mediated mRNA decay pathway. In addition, the upf1Δ strain demonstrates a nonsense suppression phenotype and Upf1p has been shown to interact with the release factors eRF1 and eRF3. In this report, we show that both upf2Δ and upf3Δ strains demonstrate a nonsense suppression phenotype independent of their effect on mRNA turnover. We also demonstrate that Upf2p and Upf3p interact with eRF3, and that their ability to bind eRF3 correlates with their ability to complement the nonsense suppression phenotype. In vitro experiments demonstrate that Upf2p, Upf3p and eRF1 compete with each other for interacting with eRF3. Con versely, Upf1p binds to a different region of eRF3 and can form a complex with these factors. These results suggest a sequential surveillance complex assembly pathway, which occurs during the premature translation termination process. We propose that the observed nonsense suppression phenotype in the upfΔ strains can be attributed to a defect in the surveillance complex assembly.