Project description:To investigate gene specificity at the level of translation in both the human genome and viruses we devised a high-throughput bicistronic assay to quantify cap-independent translation. We uncover thousands of novel cap-independent translation sequences and provide insights on the landscape of translational regulation in both human and viruses. We find extensive translational elements in the 3â untranslated region (3âUTR) of human transcripts and the polyprotein region of un-capped RNA viruses. Through the characterization of regulatory elements underlying cap-independent translation activity we identify potential mechanisms of secondary structure, short sequence motif and base-pairing with the 18S rRNA. Furthermore, we systematically map the 18S rRNA regions for which reverse complementary enhance translation. Thus we provide insights into the mechanisms of translational control in humans and viruses. high-throughput bicistronic assay for obtaining cap-independent translation measurements of 55,000 fully designed sequences in parallel using fluorescence-activated cell sorting and high-throughput DNA sequencing (FACS-seq).
