title: Evolution and Biological Roles of Alternative 3'UTRs.
abstract: More than half of human genes use alternative cleavage and polyadenylation to generate alternative 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) isoforms. Most efforts have focused on transcriptome-wide mapping of alternative 3'UTRs and on the question of how 3'UTR isoform ratios may be regulated. However, it remains less clear why alternative 3'UTRs have evolved and what biological roles they play. This review summarizes our current knowledge of the functional roles of alternative 3'UTRs, including mRNA localization, mRNA stability, and translational efficiency. Recent work suggests that alternative 3'UTRs may also enable the formation of protein-protein interactions to regulate protein localization or to diversify protein functions. These recent findings open an exciting research direction for the investigation of new biological roles of alternative 3'UTRs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: mayrc@mskcc.org.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mayr
mesh_terms: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D012323:RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; D020871:RNA Stability; D034443:RNA Transport
chemical_list: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions
keywords: 3′UTR; RNA granule; RNA-binding protein; alternative polyadenylation; diversification of protein functions; multifunctionality; noncoding RNA; post-transcriptional gene regulation; protein abundance; protein localization; protein–protein interactions