Poster abstracts
Poster number 65 submitted by Audrey Hoelscher
The Role of YHR020W 5’ UTR Isoforms in Stress Tolerance
Audrey Hoelscher (University of Michigan, Department of Biological Chemistry), Charlotte Clark-Slakey (University of Michigan, Department of Biological Chemistry), Rachel Niederer (University of Michigan, Department of Biological Chemistry)
Abstract:
Translational control of gene expression influences cellular diversity, stress response, and disease. While the extent of mRNA features that control protein output are not fully characterized, evidence suggests that 5’ untranslated regions (UTRs) contain potent features which regulate protein output and control gene expression. Importantly, many genes utilize 5’ UTR isoforms that contain distinct regulatory elements. For example, previous work has shown that some 5’ UTR isoforms in yeast can drive >30-fold differences in ribosome recruitment. Here, we were interested in whether expression of 5′-UTR isoforms known to differentially recruit ribosomes can drive phenotypic differences in yeast. To test this, we have ectopically expressed either the long or short 5’ UTR isoforms from the gene YHR0202W in a knockout background. The knockout cells exhibit altered stress tolerance, which can be rescued by expression of the gene with the long 5’ UTR isoform. Next, to determine the exact location of the functionally relevant features we are generating scanning mutations in the unshared sequence of the long isoform. Luciferase output of the mutants will be measured and compared to the original isoform protein output. The insights found on 5’UTR regulatory features will provide a better understanding of the role of translational control elements in human diseases.
Keywords: translational control, 5UTR