title: Regulation of CTR2 mRNA by the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pathway.
abstract: The nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway was originally identified as a pathway that degrades mRNAs with premature termination codons; however, NMD is now known to regulate natural mRNAs as well. Natural mRNAs are degraded by NMD due to the presence of specific NMD targeting features. An atypically long 3'-UTR is one of the features that has been shown to induce the rapid degradation of mRNAs by NMD in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other organisms. S. cerevisiae CTR2 mRNAs have long 3'-UTRs and are sensitive to NMD, although the extent by which these long 3'-UTRs target the CTR2 mRNAs to the pathway is unknown. Here, we investigated the sequence elements that induce NMD of the CTR2 mRNAs and determined that the long CTR2 3'-UTR is sufficient to target an NMD-insensitive mRNA to the pathway. We also found that, although the CTR2 3'-UTR contributes to NMD-induced degradation, CTR2 mRNAs contain additional NMD-inducing features that function cooperatively with the atypically long 3'-UTR to trigger mRNA degradation. Lengthening the CTR2 ORF abrogates NMD and renders the mRNAs immune to the NMD pathway. Moreover, we found that transcription of CTR2 driven by the GPD promoter, which is not identical to the CTR2 promoter, affects degradation of the transcripts by NMD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peccarelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
authors.forename: Taylor D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
authors.forename: Hoifung
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA.
authors.forename: Xuya
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA. Electronic address: Bessie_Kebaara@baylor.edu.
authors.forename: Bessie W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Kebaara
mesh_terms: D027682:Cation Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D005987:Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenases / Q000235:genetics; D059365:Nonsense Mediated mRNA Decay / Q000502:physiology*; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000080083:SLC31 Proteins; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D027682:Cation Transport Proteins; C497350:Ctr2 protein, S cerevisiae; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000080083:SLC31 Proteins; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D005987:Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenases
keywords: CTR2; Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; mRNA degradation