mRNA Export

Hong Cheng, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Kobina Dufu, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Patricia Valencia, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Robin Reed, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Published online: September 2007

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005977.pub2

The expression of protein-coding genes is a multistep process that begins with transcription and processing of premessenger ribonucleic acid (pre-mRNA) in the nucleus. The mature mRNA is then exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm for translation into protein. Export of mRNA involves a specific cellular machinery that is highly conserved from yeast to humans.

Keywords: mRNA export; the TREX complex; splicing; transcription; CBC

Figure 1. Model for mRNA export: (a) During transcription, nascent pre-mRNA is capped at the 5¢ end, bound by the cap-binding complex (CBC), and assembled into the spliceosome for splicing. (b) After splicing, the TREX complex is recruited to a region near the 5¢ end of the mRNA via an interaction between CBP80 and Aly. (c) TAP/P15 then interacts with Aly to mediate export of the mRNA, which occurs in a 5¢ to 3¢ direction.
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 References
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 Further Reading
    Cole CN and Scarcelli JJ (2006) Transport of messenger RNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. Current Opinion in Cell Biology 18: 299–306.
    Maniatis T and Reed R (2002) An extensive network of coupling among gene expression machines. Nature 416: 499–506.
    Reed R (2003) Coupling transcription, splicing and mRNA export. Current Opinion in Cell Biology 15: 326–331.
    Reed R and Cheng H (2005) TREX, SR proteins and export of mRNA. Current Opinion in Cell Biology 17: 269–273.
    Reed R and Hurt E (2002) A conserved mRNA export machinery coupled to pre-mRNA splicing. Cell 108: 523–531.
    Reed R and Magni K (2001) A new view of mRNA export: separating the wheat from the chaff. Nature Cell Biology 3: 201–204.
    Stewart M (2007) Retcheting mRNA out of the nucleus. Molecular Cell 25: 327–330.

Related Sub-Topics:

Cell Membranes | Cellular Transport | Basic Cell Biology, Protein, RNA and DNA | Cell Compartments and Cellular Organelles | Growth and Synthesis | RNA Structure and Function | Posttranscriptional Modification | Biomolecular Interactions | Proteins: Structure, Function, Metabolism | Nucleic Acids: Structure, Function, Metabolism | Molecular Transport
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Article Title: mRNA Export
 
How to Cite close
Cheng, Hong, Dufu, Kobina, Valencia, Patricia, and Reed, Robin(Sep 2007) mRNA Export. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005977.pub2]