Unproductively spliced ribosomal protein mRNAs are natural targets of mRNA surveillance in C. elegans.

ABSTRACT: Messenger RNA surveillance, the selective and rapid degradation of mRNAs containing premature stop codons, occurs in all eukaryotes tested. The biological role of this decay pathway, however, is not well understood. To identify natural substrates of mRNA surveillance, we used a cDNA-based representational difference analysis to identify mRNAs whose abundance increases in Caenorhabditis elegans smg(-) mutants, which are deficient for mRNA surveillance. Alternatively spliced mRNAs of genes encoding ribosomal proteins L3, L7a, L10a, and L12 are abundant natural targets of mRNA surveillance. Each of these genes expresses two distinct mRNAs. A productively spliced mRNA, whose abundance does not change in smg(-) mutants, encodes a normal, full-length, ribosomal protein. An unproductively spliced

SUBMITTER: Mitrovich QM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC316897 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature