Cytoplasmic polyadenylation and translational control

Increased sensitivity and accuracy of a single-stranded DNA splint-mediated ligation assay (sPAT) reveals poly(A) tail length dynamics of developmentally regulated mRNAs

“…Control of the cell cycle must rely upon post-transcriptional regulation of maternally contributed RNAs in the maturing oocyte as transcription is silenced in the oocyte and early embryo. 4,8 Eg2 encodes a kinase required for the phosphorylation of cell cycle regulators. 24 Eg2 is present in the oocyte as a protected but silent mRNA with a short poly(A) tail.…”

“…32 However, not all RNAs with shortened poly(A) tails are degraded, some are stored in an inactive, protected form for future activation via cytoplasmic polyadenylation. 4,7 Two functions have been proposed for GLD-2-mediated poly(A) tail addition; enhancing germ cell mRNA translation, 28,33 and the protection and storage of oogenic mRNAs. 17,34 To assess these two effects upon the gld-1 mRNA, we measured gld-1 mRNA levels and compared them with the corresponding poly(A) tail profiles.…”

“…RNA-modifying enzymes regulate specific mRNAs based on their ability to interact with sequence-specific mRNA-binding proteins that interpret the mRNA's cis-regulatory sequence code (for recent reviews, see refs. [3][4][5]. When transcriptional regulation is either reduced or turned off during development, or too slow and a faster pace of response is required for protein expression, post-transcriptional regulation becomes the dominant form of gene expression regulation and decides an mRNA's fate.…”

3′ UTR-isoform choice has limited influence on the stability and translational efficiency of most mRNAs in mouse fibroblasts

“…Competitive binding to otherwise destabilizing cis motifs, such as miRNA sites (Kedde et al 2007) and AU-rich elements (Barreau et al 2005), has been reported. However, little is known about cis motifs that act independently to stabilize mRNAs-an exception being motifs that mediate cytoplasmic polyadenylation, which occurs during oocyte maturation and early embryonic development and in some other settings (Villalba et al 2011). Although further experiments are required to validate our candidate mRNA stabilizing elements, their presence could help counteract the effects of known destabilizing elements and thereby explain the small average difference in stability of tandem 39 UTR isoforms.…”

Ringo/Cyclin-dependent Kinase and Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Signaling Pathways Regulate the Activity of the Cell Fate Determinant Musashi to Promote Cell Cycle Re-entry in Xenopus Oocytes

“…In the oocytes of the frog Xenopus laevis, multiple mRNA-binding proteins have been implicated in sequence-specific mRNA translational control, including the developmental regulator Pumilio, the stem cell self-renewal factor Musashi, and the cytoplasmic polyadenylation element-binding protein (CPEB) 5 (5)(6)(7)(8). However, the mechanism by which the function of these mRNA translational control proteins is coordinated to produce a temporally integrated pattern of protein expression is not fully understood (9,10).…”