These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: mRNA degradation by processive 3'-5' exoribonucleases in vitro and the implications for prokaryotic mRNA decay in vivo.
    Author: McLaren RS, Newbury SF, Dance GS, Causton HC, Higgins CF.
    Journal: J Mol Biol; 1991 Sep 05; 221(1):81-95. PubMed ID: 1920421.
    Abstract:
    Two 3'-5' exoribonucleases, polynucleotide phosphorylase and ribonuclease II play a central role in the degradation of bacterial mRNA to ribonucleotides. Sequences with the potential to form stem-loop structures can stabilize upstream mRNA against 3'-5' exoribonucleolytic attack in vivo by blocking the processive activities of these enzymes. For many mRNA species stem-loop structures appear to provide a very efficient block to decay from the 3' end, such that the rate-determining step for mRNA decay occurs elsewhere in the transcript. We have examined the stalling of 3'-5' exoribonucleases at stem-loop structures in vitro. Although stem-loop structures alone can impede the progress of both enzymes, the duration of stalling at these structures in vitro is insufficient to account for the increased half-lives that they confer on mRNA in vivo. These data suggest that an additional factor, such as a stem-loop binding protein, is required for stabilization of mRNA by stem-loop structures in vivo. The implications for the regulation of mRNA stability are discussed.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]