Predictable suppression of gene expression by 5'-UTR-based RNA quadruplexes.

ABSTRACT: Four-stranded DNA and RNA quadruplexes or G4 motifs are non-B DNA conformations that are presumed to form in vivo, although only few explicit evidence has been reported. Using bioinformatics the presence of putative DNA G-quadruplexes within critical promoter regions has been demonstrated and a regulatory role in transcription has been suspected. However, in genomic DNA the presence of the complementary strand interferes with the potential to form a quadruplex motif. Contrarily RNA G4 motifs have no such limitation and consequently strong interference with gene expression is suspected. Nevertheless, experimental evidence is scarce. Here we show a well-defined structure-function relationship of synthetic quadruplex sequences in 5'-UTRs in multiple mammalian cell-lines. We establish a univer

SUBMITTER: Halder K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2777418 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature