Journal
NATURE PLANTS
Volume 8, Issue 5, Pages 474-+Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41477-022-01136-8
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Funding
- Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [107-2321-B-001-007-, 108-2321-B-001-023-, 109-2811-B-001-595-, 110-2326-B-001-018-, 109-2113-M-001-022-MY4, 110-2123-M-001-005-]
- Academia Sinica [AS-IA-106-M01]
- Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
- Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
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Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are commonly found in eukaryotic messenger RNAs and can achieve low but precise protein production by repressing the translation efficiency of downstream coding sequences. These uORFs can buffer protein production levels in the plant circadian clock, contributing to its robust operation.
Gene expression is prone to burst production, making it a highly noisy process that requires additional controls. Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are widely present in the 5' leader sequences of 30-50% of eukaryotic messenger RNAs1-3. The translation of uORFs can repress the translation efficiency of the downstream main coding sequences. Whether the low translation efficiency leads to a different variation, or noise, in gene expression has not been investigated, nor has the direct biological impact of uORF-repressed translation. Here we show that uORFs achieve low but precise protein production in plant cells, possibly by reducing the protein production rate. We also demonstrate that, by buffering a stable TIMING OF CAB EXPRESSION 1 (TOC1) protein production level, uORFs contribute to the robust operation of the plant circadian clock. Our results provide both an action model and the biological impact of uORFs in translational control to mitigate transcriptional noise for precise protein production.
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