When a ribosome encounters a premature termination codon

Jungwook Hwang, Yoon Ki Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalShort surveypeer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In mammalian cells, aberrant transcripts harboring a premature termination codon (PTC) can be generated by abnormal or inefficient biogenesis of mRNAs or by somatic mutation. Truncated polypeptides synthesized from these aberrant transcripts could be toxic to normal cellular functions. However, mammalian cells have evolved sophisticated mechanisms for monitoring the quality of mRNAs. The faulty transcripts harboring PTC are subject to nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD), nonsense-mediated translational repression (NMTR), nonsense-associated alternative splicing (NAS), or nonsense-mediated transcriptional gene silencing (NMTGS). In this review, we briefly outline the molecular characteristics of each pathway and suggest mRNA quality control mechanisms as a means to regulate normal gene expression.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9-16
Number of pages8
JournalBMB reports
Volume46
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013 Jan

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology

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