title: Processing bodies are not required for mammalian nonsense-mediated mRNA decay.
abstract: Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a eukaryotic quality-control mechanism that recognizes and degrades mRNAs with premature termination codons (PTCs). In yeast, PTC-containing mRNAs are targeted to processing bodies (P-bodies), and yeast strains expressing an ATPase defective Upf1p mutant accumulate P-bodies. Here we show that in human cells, an ATPase-deficient UPF1 mutant and a fraction of UPF2 and UPF3b accumulate in cytoplasmic foci that co-localize with P-bodies. Depletion of the P-body component Ge-1, which prevents formation of microscopically detectable P-bodies, also impairs the localization of mutant UPF1, UPF2, and UPF3b in cytoplasmic foci. However, the accumulation of the ATPase-deficient UPF1 mutant in P-bodies is independent of UPF2, UPF3b, or SMG1, and the ATPase-deficient UPF1 mutant can localize into the P-bodies independent of its phosphorylation status. Most importantly, disruption of P-bodies by depletion of Ge-1 affects neither the mRNA levels of PTC-containing reporter genes nor endogenous NMD substrates. Consistent with the recently reported decapping-independent SMG6-mediated endonucleolytic decay of human nonsense mRNAs, our results imply that microscopically detectable P-bodies are not required for mammalian NMD.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell Biology, University of Berne, 3012 Berne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stalder
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mühlemann
mesh_terms: D018389:Codon, Nonsense / Q000235:genetics*; D022083:Cytoplasmic Structures / Q000378:metabolism*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D009154:Mutation; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000081082:Phosphoinositide-3 Kinase Inhibitors; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D020365:RNA Helicases; D020871:RNA Stability; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000494:pharmacology; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018389:Codon, Nonsense; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D000081082:Phosphoinositide-3 Kinase Inhibitors; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D020365:RNA Helicases; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; D014157:Transcription Factors; C468286:UPF2 protein, human; C435488:UPF3B protein, human; C514704:SMG1 protein, human; C101828:UPF1 protein, human