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Translation of small downstream ORFs enhances translation of canonical main open reading frames
Author(s) -
Wu Qiushuang,
Wright Matthew,
Gogol Madelaine M,
Bradford William D,
Zhang Ning,
Bazzini Ariel A
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.15252/embj.2020104763
Subject(s) - wright , library science , orfs , reading (process) , history , art history , political science , open reading frame , computer science , law , biology , genetics , gene , peptide sequence
Abstract In addition to canonical open reading frames (ORFs), thousands of translated small ORFs (containing less than 100 codons) have been identified in untranslated mRNA regions (UTRs) across eukaryotes. Small ORFs in 5′ UTRs (upstream (u)ORFs) often repress translation of the canonical ORF within the same mRNA. However, the function of translated small ORFs in the 3′ UTRs (downstream (d)ORFs) is unknown. Contrary to uORFs, we find that translation of dORFs enhances translation of their corresponding canonical ORFs. This translation stimulatory effect of dORFs depends on the number of dORFs, but not the length or peptide they encode. We propose that dORFs represent a new, strong, and universal translation regulatory mechanism in vertebrates.