Poster abstracts
Poster number 80 submitted by Sakinah Owens
Investigating 40S Scanning of 5' UTRs to Detect Enrichment of mRNAs
Sakinah Owens (Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan ), Ben Pockrass (Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan ), Rachel O. Niederer, (Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan )
Abstract:
Translation initiation is a highly regulated process that broadly affects gene expression. Initiation begins with recognition of the mRNA cap followed by the small ribosomal subunit scanning along the 5’ UTR until a start codon is recognized at which point the large subunit joins and protein synthesis can begin.The 5’ UTR can contain many regulatory elements, such as RNA secondary structures, modifications, and protein binding sites. However, the exact regulatory sites in the 5’ UTR for many genes are completely unknown. To address this, we used Direct Analysis of Ribosome Targeting (DART) to measure ribosome recruitment to a pool of RNAs consisting of tissue-specific and disease-relevant 5’ UTR isoforms as well as pathogenic SNPs. To test whether we could identify RNAs where scanning is rate limiting, we also investigated the mRNA fractions that were bound to the 40S subunit. Our working hypothesis is that mRNAs that are difficult to scan will be enriched in the 40S fraction relative to the 80S. Future work will elucidate any features associated with delayed scanning.
Keywords: Translation, RNA