Functional and structural basis of extreme conservation in vertebrate 5' untranslated regions.

ABSTRACT: The lack of knowledge about extreme conservation in genomes remains a major gap in our understanding of the evolution of gene regulation. Here, we reveal an unexpected role of extremely conserved 5' untranslated regions (UTRs) in noncanonical translational regulation that is linked to the emergence of essential developmental features in vertebrate species. Endogenous deletion of conserved elements within these 5' UTRs decreased gene expression, and extremely conserved 5' UTRs possess cis-regulatory elements that promote cell-type-specific regulation of translation. We further developed in-cell mutate-and-map (icM²), a new methodology that maps RNA structure inside cells. Using icM², we determined that an extremely conserved 5' UTR encodes multiple alternative structur

SUBMITTER: Byeon GW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8825242 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature