Premium
Deciphering the molecular mechanism of stop codon readthrough
Author(s) -
Palma Martine,
Lejeune Fabrice
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
biological reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.993
H-Index - 165
eISSN - 1469-185X
pISSN - 1464-7931
DOI - 10.1111/brv.12657
Subject(s) - stop codon , genetics , nonsense mutation , translation (biology) , start codon , biology , coding region , codon usage bias , nonsense mediated decay , computational biology , five prime untranslated region , gene , mutation , nucleotide , messenger rna , rna , genome , missense mutation , rna splicing
Recognition of the stop codon by the translation machinery is essential to terminating translation at the right position and to synthesizing a protein of the correct size. Under certain conditions, the stop codon can be recognized as a coding codon promoting translation, which then terminates at a later stop codon. This event, called stop codon readthrough, occurs either by error, due to a dedicated regulatory environment leading to generation of different protein isoforms, or through the action of a readthrough compound. This review focuses on the mechanisms of stop codon readthrough, the nucleotide and protein environments that facilitate or inhibit it, and the therapeutic interest of stop codon readthrough in the treatment of genetic diseases caused by nonsense mutations.