A novel, noncanonical mechanism of cytoplasmic polyadenylation operates in Drosophila embryogenesis.
Cytoplasmic polyadenylation is a widespread mechanism to regulate mRNA translation that requires two sequences in the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of vertebrate substrates: the polyadenylation hexanucleotide, and the cytoplasmic polyadenylation element (CPE). Using a cell-free Drosophila system, we show that these signals are not relevant for Toll polyadenylation but, instead, a "polyadenylation region" (PR) is necessary. Competition experiments indicate that PR-mediated polyadenylation is required for viability and is mechanistically distinct from the CPE/hexanucleotide-mediated process. These data indicate that Toll mRNA is polyadenylated by a noncanonical mechanism, and suggest that a novel machinery functions for cytoplasmic polyadenylation during Drosophila embryogenesis.
Coll
Olga
O
Gene Regulation Programme, Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG-UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
Villalba
Ana
A
Bussotti
Giovanni
G
Notredame
Cedric
C
Gebauer
Fátima
F
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D000818:Animals; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000196:embryology*; D026723:Polyadenylation / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors / Q000378:metabolism
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C068721:Tl protein, Drosophila; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors