John Hesketh, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Published online: September 2005
DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0005011
Messenger RNAs contain sequences that do not encode proteins and are not translated. These occur at the 5¢ and 3¢ ends of the coding region and are referred to as untranslated regions (UTRs). 3¢ UTRs have various roles in the posttranscriptional control of gene expression.
Keywords: 3¢ untranslated; mRNA degradation; mRNA localization; messenger RNA; posttranscriptional
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Figure 1. A proposed consensus structure for the selenocysteine insertion sequence found in the 3¢ UTRs of selenoprotein genes (see Web Links).
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| References | |
| Chen C-YA and Shyu A-B (1995) AU-rich elements: characterization and importance in mRNA degradation. Trends in Biochemical Sciences 20: 465–470. | |
| Hentze MW and Kuhn LC (1996) Molecular control of vertebrate iron metabolism: mRNA based regulatory circuits operated by iron, nitric oxide and oxidative stress. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 93: 8175–8182. | |
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| Ostareck-Lederer A, Ostareck DH, Standart N and Thiele BJ (1994) Translation of 15-lipoxygenase mRNA is inhibited by a protein that binds to a repeated sequence in the 3¢ untranslated region. EMBO Journal 13: 1476–1481. | |
| Pesole G, Luini S, Grillo G and Saccone C (1997) Structural and compositional features of untranslated regions of eukaryotic mRNAs. Gene 205: 95–102. | |
| Reinhart BJ, Slack FJ, Basson M, et al. (2000) The 21-nucleotide let-7 RNA regulates developmental timing on Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 403: 901–906. | |
| Veyrune J-L, Campbell GP, Wiseman J, Blanchard J-L and Hesketh JE (1996) A localization signal in the 3¢ untranslated region of c-myc mRNA targets c-myc mRNA and -globin reporter sequences to the perinuclear cytoplasm and cytoskeletal-bound polysomes. Journal of Cell Science 109: 1185–1194. | |
| Walczak R, Carbon P and Krol A (1998) An essential non-Watson–Crick base pair motif in 3¢ UTR to mediate selenoprotein translation. RNA 4: 74–84. | |
| Williams AS and Marzluff WF (1995) The sequence of the stem and flanking sequences at the 3¢ end of histone mRNA are critical determinants for the binding of the stem–loop binding protein. Nucleic Acids Research 23: 654–662. | |
| Xu N, Chen C-YA and Shyu A-B (1997) Modulation of the fate of cytoplasmic mRNA by AU-rich elelments; key sequence features controlling mRNA deadenylation and decay. Molecular and Cellular Biology 17: 4611–4621. | |
| Further Reading | |
| Bergsten SE, Huang T, Chatterjee S and Gavis ER (2001) Recognition and long-range interactions of a minimal nanos RNA localization signal element. Development 128: 427–435. | |
| Dalgleish G, Veyrune J-L, Blanchard J-M and Hesketh JE (2000) mRNA localization by a 145 nt region of the c-fos 3¢ untranslated region: links to translation but not stability. Journal of Biology Chemistry 276: 13593–13599. | |
| Gramolini AO, Belanger G and Jasmin BJ (2001) Distinct regions in the 3¢ untranslated region are responsible for targeting and stabilizing utrophin transcripts in skeletal muscle cells. Journal of Cell Biology 154: 1173–1183. | |
| Grzybowska EA, Wilczynska A and Siedlecki JA (2001) Regulatory functions of 3¢ UTRs. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 288: 291–295. | |
| Kislauskis EH, Li Z, Taneja KL and Singer RH (1993) Isoform-specific 3¢ untranslated sequences sort -cardiac and -cytoplasmic actin messenger RNAs to different cytoplasmic compartments. Journal of Cell Biology 123: 165–172. | |
| Kwon S, Barbarese E and Carson JH (1999) The cis-acting RNA trafficking signal from myelin basic protein mRNA and its cognate trans-acting ligand hnRNP A2 enhance cap-dependent translation. Journal of Cell Biology 147: 247–256. | |
| Pesole G, Liuni S, Grillo G, et al. (1999) UTRdB: a specialized database of 5¢ and 3¢ untranslated regions of eukaryotic mRNAs. Nucleic Acids Research 27: 188–191. | |
| Stoecklin G, Soeeckle P, Lu M, Muehlemann O and Moroni C (2001) Cellular mutants define a common mRNA degradation pathway targeting cytokine AU-rich elements. RNA 7: 1578–1588. | |
| Wagner C, Palacios I, Jeager L, et al. (2001) Dimerization of the 3¢ UTR of bicoid mRNA involves a two-step mechanism. Journal of Molecular Biology 313: 511–524. | |
| Wilkinson MF and Shyu AB (2001) Multifunctional regulatory proteins that control gene expression in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm. BioEssays 23: 775–787. | |
| Web Links | |
| ePath UTR Database (UTRdb). 5¢ and 3¢ UTRs of eukaryotic mRNAs http://bighost.area.ba.cnr.it/BIG/UTRHome | |
| ePath Gladyshev website. Prediction of selenocysteine insertion motifs (SECIS) http://bio-selenium.unl.edu | |
| ePath SECI Search website. Identification of SECIS elements. http://genome.unl.edu/SECISearch.html | |
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