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LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
Laboratories of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
Reprint requests to: Michael R. Culbertson, Laboratories of Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA; e-mail: mrculber{at}wisc.edu; fax (608) 262-4570.
| ABSTRACT |
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Keywords: translation; RNA transcript degradation; RNA binding proteins; messenger ribonucleoprotein; nucleocytoplasmic transport
| NMD in yeast and mammals |
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The ideas presented below were initially prompted by a recent report in RNA (Kuperwasser et al. 2004
) claiming important differences in the mechanism of NMD between mammals and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The authors presented evidence that nonsense transcripts are insensitive to NMD when restricted to the nucleus, due to a block in nuclear export. In addition, analysis of a nonsense reporter transcript indicated that it was insensitive to NMD when bound to the nuclear cap binding complex (Cbc1p/Cbc2p). They concluded that nonsense transcripts are not degraded directly in the nucleus and that there is no special pioneer round of translation in yeast. NMD must therefore occur during bulk translation of eIF-4E-bound transcripts in the cytoplasm.
These conclusions were quickly challenged (Gao et al. 2005
). Examining six NMD-sensitive transcripts, those authors found that all of them were susceptible to NMD regardless of whether they were bound to Cbc- or eIF-4E cap binding complexes. This evidence supports the existence of a special pioneer round of translation. Furthermore, the results are compatible with other evidence showing that NMD can occur during any round of translation (Maderazo et al. 2003
; Keeling et al. 2004
). The finding that the Upf proteins associate with polyribosomes and are not restricted to 80S monosomes (Atkin et al. 1997
) is another indication that NMD is not limited to Cbc-bound transcripts. Considering all of these observations, the most reasonable premise is that yeast lacks a Upf-dependent mechanism for degrading nonsense transcripts trapped in the nucleus but retains a special pioneer round of translation. Nonsense transcripts can be degraded during the pioneer round or during bulk cytoplasmic translation.
| Recruitment of the factors required for NMD in yeast |
|---|
To stimulate debate about how recruitment might work for an NMD pathway that can occur during any round of translation, we propose two mechanisms: "nuclear marking" for the pioneer round of translation, and an alternate mechanism called "reverse assembly" for subsequent rounds of translation. Figure 1
illustrates both mechanisms. The cartoon depicts Cbc-bound mRNPs exiting the nucleus to engage in a pioneer round of translation. This aspect of the model deserves further explanation, because the current claim is that a pioneer ribosome can translate either Cbc-bound or eIF-4E-bound transcripts. This could be true, but there is a caveat to consider.
|
strain, which is surprisingly viable (Gao et al. 2005
However, pre-mRNAs (by virtue of intronic stop codons) must be exported to the cytoplasm to be degraded by NMD. From that location, they are no longer precursors to mature mRNA because the splicing machinery is in the nucleus. If some of the pre-mRNAs escape NMD during pioneer translation, eIF-4E could replace Cbc before the next round of translation, and that could be why Gao et al. (2005)
detected eIF-4E-bound pre-mRNAs. The only way their model for pioneer translation of eIF-4E-bound pre-mRNAs holds up is if some eIF-4E is nuclear. Because it is only 24.3 kDa in size, eIF-4E could import by passive diffusion (Pante and Aebi 1995
), but this has not been tested. When cells over-express eIF-4E at 100-fold above normal (1.42 x 106 molecules per cell), some nuclear accumulation occurs (Lang et al. 1994
; Ghaemmaghami et al. 2003
), but mislocalization at this level of expression is common. Lang et al. (1994)
also claimed that eIF-4E can be detected in the nucleus when expressed at the normal level, but the data was not shown. This point is so critical to the conclusion that eIF-4E-bound transcripts undergo pioneer translation that we should not incorporate this into the dogma of NMD until better evidence for nuclear eIF-4E is published.
As illustrated in Figure 1
, nuclear marking posits that shuttling proteins function in NMD by exporting from the nucleus in association with every mRNP (mRNA/protein) complex. During or following export, the pioneer ribosome displaces the transcript-bound marker proteins, after which they shuttle back into the nucleus for another round of mRNP-associated export. However, when translation terminates prematurely, the marker proteins remain associated with the transcript, followed by assembly of a "surveillance" complex. The complete NMD-competent complex, which contains the factors required for translation termination and NMD (eRF1, eRF3, Upf1p, Upf2p, Upf3p), triggers termination of translation, decapping, and 5' decay-mediated by the Xrn1p exonuclease. There is also a link between NMD and exosomal 3' decay mediated by an interaction between Upf1p and Ski7p (Mitchell and Tollervey 2003
; Takahashi et al. 2003
). Thus, nonsense transcripts appear to be degraded from both ends.
Full assembly of the surveillance complex is most likely preceded by the prior assembly of two subcomplexes (Atkin et al. 1997
). One contains Upf2p and Upf3p, and the other contains Upf1p, eRF1, and eRF3 (Upf1p/RF). Staged assembly of the two subcomplexes is supported by two observations. (1) Upf2p fails to associate with translating ribosomes in the absence of Upf3p. (2) Upf1p associates with translating ribosomes in the absence of Upf2p and Upf3p. These and other findings suggest that the two subcomplexes are recruited separately and assembled independently. NMD only occurs when both subcomplexes are present.
We propose that the Upf3p/Upf2p subcomplex assembles on Cbc-bound transcripts before the pioneer round of translation commences. If the pioneer ribosome encounters a premature stop codon, the Upf1p/RF subcomplex is recruited, and the surveillance complex is assembled. During bulk translation of eIF-4E-bound transcripts, the subcomplexes assemble in reverse order. The structure and function of the fully assembled surveillance complex could be identical regardless of the order of assembly of the subcomplexes.
| Limitations caused by the low abundance of Upf proteins |
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|
Despite the apparent feasibility of nuclear marking based on the above arguments, it would only be fair to point out a caveat of the model regarding Upf3p that needs to be addressed. Conclusions grounded in firm evidence include the following: (1) The import mechanism for Upf3p has been establishedit binds to ß-importin Srp1p and is excluded from the nucleus in an srp1 mutant (Shirley et al. 2002
). (2) Mutations in UPF3 have been identified that block export, cause nuclear accumulation, and confer an Nmd phenotype. (3) Upf3p associates with 80S particles and polyribosomes (Atkin et al. 1997
). However, one assumption of nuclear marking has not been resolved at the molecular level. Efforts by us and by others to detect Upf3p bound to mRNA have failed. Upf3p might associate with mRNPs indirectly by binding to another mRNP protein, but besides Upf2p, no other interacting proteins have surfaced in global two-hybrid screens. These difficulties could indicate one of two possibilities: Either the nuclear marking model is wrong or the interaction of Upf3p with mRNPs is too transient or too weak to purify in immunoprecipitation experiments.
For subsequent rounds of translation in the cytoplasm, the low concentrations of the Upf proteins impose severe restrictions on any mechanism for efficient selection of NMD substrates among the 15,000 cytoplasmic mRNAs. Compared to the Upf proteins, most translation factors are highly abundant, including the release factors eRF1 and eRF3. Complexes between the release factors and Upf1p can only form with a small fraction of the release factor pool per unit time, suggesting that the Upf1p/RF complex may be restricted to aberrant termination events. Although the rapid cycling of factors must be an essential feature of shuttling proteins that function in NMD, the need for rapid cycling is even more critical in subsequent rounds of translation in the cytoplasm. The Upf proteins cannot be sequestered on any one transcript for very long. There is not enough to go around.
| Upf protein localization is compatible with assembly on Cbc- or eIF-4E-bound transcripts |
|---|
|
| Recruitment of factors for NMD following the first round of translation |
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We propose that in subsequent rounds of translation, the Upf1p/RF subcomplex is the most likely one to be recruited first when a premature termination codon is encountered and recognized as an aberrant termination codon. Recent evidence shows that aberrant termination occurs when the stop codon is followed by an imposter sequence posing as an improperly configured 3'-UTR (Amrani et al. 2004
). This sequence is most likely functionally equivalent to the degenerate AU-rich downstream element (DSE) shown to be required for NMD (Zhang et al. 1995
).
In the cytoplasm where the subcomplexes must find the substrates for NMD in the larger pool of total transcripts, a reverse order of assembly makes sense, but not out of necessity. It is favored by probability; Upf1p/RF is 520 times more abundant than Upf3p/Upf2p (Table 1
). After the Upf1p/RF subcomplex is recruited, the Upf2p/Upf3p subcomplex associates through the binding domains known to tether all three proteins together in the surveillance complex (He et al. 1997
). The Upf3p/Upf2p subcomplex forms its own association with RF3 (Gonzalez et al. 2001
; Wang et al. 2001
). As mentioned earlier, we dont envision any necessity for the fully assembled surveillance complex to differ in structure or function between the pioneer round and subsequent rounds of translation.
| Error-containing versus error-free targets of NMD |
|---|
|
|
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The difference between transcripts targeted to eliminate a protein product versus those targeted to reduce but not eliminate a protein product is not immediately obvious because for both of them, steady-state RNA transcript levels are not reduced by NMD to zero. Most nonsense transcripts are reduced fourfold to 10-fold. For example, met8 and pgk1 nonsense transcripts are reduced fourfold and 10-fold, respectively (Gao et al. 2005
). In addition, 82% of 529 error-free transcripts that are targeted by NMD are reduced by three-fold or less, but 18% are reduced much moreas high as 11-fold (Lelivelt and Culbertson 1999
).
We believe the reason that low levels of transcripts are always detected is that for all transcripts there is a protected classthose nascent transcripts that have not yet been exported from the nucleus and have therefore not been exposed to NMD through translation. Since the balance between rates of transcription and decay vary for each transcript, the steady-state percentage of protected transcripts will vary. Because of this, it is reasonable to assume that RNA surveillance, while not eliminating all detectable mRNA, may very well limit the synthesis of truncated proteins to the one made by necessity during pioneer translation to test whether the transcript can be translated full-length. This argues for very efficient RNA surveillance during the first round of translation, a level of efficiency that could be achieved by nuclear marking. In the case of error-free transcripts, the example below illustrates one way transcripts can be targeted by NMD while maintaining production of a functional protein product.
Error-free transcripts are most likely substrates for NMD during all rounds of translation. One of these, the wild-type SPT10 transcript, is three times more abundant and threefold more stable when NMD is inactivated, and is targeted for NMD by "leaky scanning" (Welch and Jacobson 1999
). SPT10 is NMD-sensitive because ribosomes fail to initiate efficiently at the first AUG codon due to a suboptimal context. As a result, ribosomes frequently bypass the initiation codon and scan to a second out-of-frame AUG (Fig. 3
). When out-of-frame initiation occurs, a stop codon in this alternate frame triggers NMD. SPT10 transcripts escape NMD when translation initiates at the normal AUG, but they are repeatedly exposed to the possibility of NMD, which can be triggered or bypassed in each successive round of translation. The beauty of leaky scanning is that decay rates can be reduced by a mechanism that permits synthesis of a necessary protein product. Transcripts targeted by leaky scanning most likely decay with composite rates that depend on the frequency of ribosomal scanning past the first AUG and the relative efficiencies of Upf protein recruitment during pioneer versus bulk translation.
|
| Summary |
|---|
In subsequent rounds of translation, neither subcomplex is associated with a nonsense transcript until translation comes to a premature halt, at which time the Upf1p/RF subcomplex is most often the first to associate by virtue of being more abundant. During bulk translation of eIF-4E-bound transcripts, reverse assembly enhances the probability of NMD. The efficiencies of NMD during pioneer translation and subsequent rounds of translation may not be the same.
Sufficient similarities exist between yeast and mammalian NMD to suppose that divergent pathways in these organisms represent alternative evolutionary outcomes derived from a common ancestral pathway (Culbertson and Leeds 2003
). In yeast, NMD targets both Cbc-bound and eIF-4E-bound transcripts. Two alternatives may be available to assemble the full surveillance complex from two subcomplexes. By accounting for differences between rounds of translation, the combination of nuclear marking and reverse assembly explains how the majority of nonsense transcripts might be preselected by one or more shuttling proteins in preparation for degradation during the pioneer round of translation, while providing an alternate mechanism using the same factors to degrade transcripts that are targeted for NMD but escape first-round decay.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
| Footnotes |
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Received May 17, 2005; accepted June 16, 2005.
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