title: Translational potentiation of messenger RNA with secondary structure in Xenopus.
abstract: Differential translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) with stable secondary structure in the 5' untranslated leader may contribute to the dramatic changes in protein synthetic patterns that occur during oogenesis and early development. Plasmids that contained the bacterial gene chloramphenicol acetyltransferase and which encoded mRNA with (hpCAT) or without (CAT) a stable hairpin secondary structure in the 5' noncoding region were transcribed in vitro, and the resulting mRNAs were injected into Xenopus oocytes, eggs, and early embryos. During early oogenesis, hpCAT mRNA was translated at less than 3 percent of the efficiency of CAT mRNA. The relative translational potential of hpCAT reached 100 percent in the newly fertilized egg and returned to approximately 3 percent after the midblastula transition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: L N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: R Q
authors.initials: RQ
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: L W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Browder
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Johnston
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015500:Chloramphenicol O-Acetyltransferase / Q000235:genetics; D004527:Egg Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009866:Oogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D010957:Plasmids; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D014982:Xenopus laevis / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004527:Egg Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D015500:Chloramphenicol O-Acetyltransferase