The G-quartet containing FMRP binding site in FMR1 mRNA is a potent exonic splicing enhancer.

ABSTRACT: The fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) is a RNA-binding protein proposed to post-transcriptionally regulate the expression of genes important for neuronal development and synaptic plasticity. We previously demonstrated that FMRP binds to its own FMR1 mRNA via a guanine-quartet (G-quartet) RNA motif. However, the functional effect of this binding on FMR1 expression was not established. In this work, we characterized the FMRP binding site (FBS) within the FMR1 mRNA by a site directed mutagenesis approach and we investigated its importance for FMR1 expression. We show that the FBS in the FMR1 mRNA adopts two alternative G-quartet structures to which FMRP can equally bind. While FMRP binding to mRNAs is generally proposed to induce translational regulation, we found that mutations in

SUBMITTER: Didiot MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2528169 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature