Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 97, Issue 25, Pages 13991-13996Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.240354097
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One of the ways a cell can rapidly and tightly regulate gene expression is to target specific mRNAs for rapid decay. A number of mRNA instability sequences that mediate rapid mRNA decay have been identified, particularly from multicellular eukaryotes, but pinpointing the cellular components that play critical roles in sequence-specific decay in vivo has been more difficult. In contrast, general pathways of mRNA degradation in yeast have been well established through the analysis of mutants affecting the general mRNA decay machinery. Strategies to isolate mutants in sequence-specific mRNA decay pathways, although extremely limited so far, have the potential to be just as powerful. In the study reported here, a selection in transgenic plants allowed the isolation of rare mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana that elevate the abundance of mRNAs that contain the plant mRNA instability sequence called DST (downstream element). This instability sequence is highly conserved in unstable small auxin up RNA (SAUR) transcripts. Genetic analysis of two dst mutants isolated via this selection showed that they are incompletely dominant and represent two independent loci. in addition to affecting DST-containing transgene mRNAs, mutations at both loci increased the abundance of the endogenous DST-containing SAUR-AC1 mRNA, but not controls lacking DST sequences. That these phenotypes are caused by deficiencies in DST-mediated mRNA decay was supported by mRNA stability measurements in transgenic plants. Isolation of the dst mutants provides a means to study sequence-specific mRNA degradation in vivo and establishes a method to isolate similar mutants from other organisms.
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