Systematic identification of factors mediating accelerated mRNA degradation in response to changes in environmental nitrogen
PLOS GENETICS
Authors: Miller, Darach; Brandt, Nathan; Gresham, David
Abstract
Cellular responses to changing environments frequently involve rapid reprogramming of the transcriptome. Regulated changes in mRNA degradation rates can accelerate reprogramming by clearing or stabilizing extant transcripts. Here, we measured mRNA stability using 4-thiouracil labeling in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae during a nitrogen upshift and found that 78 mRNAs are subject to destabilization. These transcripts include Nitrogen Catabolite Repression (NCR) and carbon metabolism mRNAs, suggesting that mRNA destabilization is a mechanism for targeted reprogramming of the transcriptome. To explore the molecular basis of destabilization we implemented a SortSeq approach to screen the pooled deletion collection library for trans factors that mediate rapid GAP1 mRNA repression. We combined low-input multiplexed Barcode sequencing with branched-DNA single-molecule mRNA FISH and Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (BFF) to identify the Lsm1-7p/Pat1p complex and general mRNA decay machinery as important for GAP1 mRNA clearance. We also find that the decapping modulators EDC3 and SCD6, translation factor eIF4G2, and the 5'UTR of GAP1 are factors that mediate rapid repression of GAP1 mRNA, suggesting that translational control may impact the post-transcriptional fate of mRNAs in response to environmental changes.
Competition between translation initiation factor elF5 and its mimic protein 5MP determines non-AUG initiation rate genome-wide
NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH
Authors: Tang, Leiming; Morris, Jacob; Wan, Ji; Moore, Chelsea; Fujita, Yoshihiko; Gillaspie, Sarah; Aube, Eric; Nanda, Jagpreet; Marques, Maud; Jangal, Maika; Anderson, Abbey; Cox, Christian; Hiraishi, Hiroyuki; Dong, Leiming; Saito, Hirohide; Singh, Chingakham Ranjit; Witcher, Michael; Topisirovic, Ivan; Qian, Shu-Bing; Asano, Katsura
Abstract
In the human genome, translation initiation from non-AUG codons plays an important role in various gene regulation programs. However, mechanisms regulating the non-AUG initiation rate remain poorly understood. Here, we show that the non-AUG initiation rate is nearly consistent under a fixed nucleotide context in various human and insect cells. Yet, it ranges from <1% to nearly 100% compared to AUG translation, depending on surrounding sequences, including Kozak, and possibly additional nucleotide contexts. Mechanistically, this range of non-AUG initiation is controlled in part, by the elF5-mimic protein (5MP). 5MP represses non-AUG translation by competing with elF5 for the Met-tRNAi-binding factor elF2. Consistently, elF5 increases, whereas 5MP decreases translation of NAT1/EIF4G2/DAP5, whose sole start codon is GUG. By modulating elF5 and 5MP1 expression in combination with ribosome profiling we identified a handful of previously unknown non-AUG initiation sites, some of which serve as the exclusive start codons. If the initiation rate for these codons is low, then an AUG-initiated downstream ORF prevents the generation of shorter, AUG- initiated isoforms. We propose that the homeostasis of the non-AUG translatome is maintained through balanced expression of elF5 and 5MP.