Project description:Abstract - 18S nonfunctional rRNA decay (NRD) detects and eliminates translationally nonfunctional 18S rRNA. While this process is critical for ribosome quality control, the mechanisms underlying nonfunctional 18S rRNA turnover remain elusive, particularly in mammals. Here, we show that mammalian 18S NRD initiates through the integrated stress response (ISR) via GCN2. Nonfunctional 18S rRNA induces translational arrest at start sites. Biochemical analyses demonstrate that ISR activation limits translation initiation and attenuates collisions between scanning 43S preinitiation complexes and stalled nonfunctional ribosomes. The ISR promotes 18S NRD and 40S ribosomal protein turnover by RNF10-mediated ubiquitination. Ultimately, RIOK3 binds the resulting ubiquitinated 40S subunits and facilitates 18S rRNA decay. Overall, mammalian 18S NRD acts through GCN2, followed by ubiquitin-dependent 18S rRNA degradation involving the ubiquitin E3 ligase RNF10 and the atypical protein kinase RIOK3. These findings establish a dynamic feedback mechanism by which the GCN2-RNF10-RIOK3 axis surveils ribosome functionality at the translation initiation step.
Project description:Tumor recurrence is main pattern of treatment failure for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying disease recurrence remain poorly understood. Here, we showed that 18S rRNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A1832) modification and its methyltransferase complex METTL5/TRMT112 were upregulated in HCC and correlated with poor prognosis. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function assays demonstrated that METTL5/TRMT112 mediated 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification promotes HCC tumorigenesis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification selectively regulated the translation of mRNAs with long 5’UTR and short 3’UTR through affecting the assembly of 80S subunit at translation initiation and its dissociation at translation termination which was executed by weakening the interaction of ABCE1 with eRF1 and eRF3. Moreover, METTL5-mediated 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification regulated β-oxidation of long-chain fatty acid through ACSL4 to promote HCC progression. Our work uncovered a novel layer of mRNA translation regulation mechanism at ribosome 80S subunit assembly and dissociation step mediated by 18S rRNA m6A1832 modification and revealed a new crosslink between RNA epigenetic modification and fatty acid metabolism in HCC.