Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in Tetrahymena is EJC independent and requires a protozoa-specific nuclease.

ABSTRACT: Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is essential for removing premature termination codon-containing transcripts from cells. Studying the NMD pathway in model organisms can help to elucidate the NMD mechanism in humans and improve our understanding of how this biologically important process has evolved. Ciliates are among the earliest branching eukaryotes; their NMD mechanism is poorly understood and may be primordial. We demonstrate that highly conserved Upf proteins (Upf1a, Upf2 and Upf3) are involved in the NMD pathway of the ciliate, Tetrahymena thermophila. We further show that a novel protozoa-specific nuclease, Smg6L, is responsible for destroying many NMD-targeted transcripts. Transcriptome-wide identification and characterization of NMD-targeted transcripts in vegetative Tetrahymen

SUBMITTER: Tian M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5499736 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature