MCB
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Brown, C. E.
Right arrow Articles by Sachs, A. B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Brown, C. E.
Right arrow Articles by Sachs, A. B.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, November 1998, p. 6548-6559, Vol. 18, No. 11
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Poly(A) Tail Length Control in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Occurs by Message-Specific Deadenylation

Christine E. Brown and Alan B. Sachs*

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720

Received 15 June 1998/Returned for modification 14 August 1998/Accepted 20 August 1998

We report that newly synthesized mRNA poly(A) tails are matured to precise lengths by the Pab1p-dependent poly(A) nuclease (PAN) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These results provide evidence for an initial phase of mRNA deadenylation that is required for poly(A) tail length control. In RNA 3'-end processing extracts lacking PAN, transcripts are polyadenylated to lengths exceeding 200 nucleotides. By contrast, in extracts containing PAN, transcripts were produced with the expected wild-type poly(A) tail lengths of 60 to 80 nucleotides. The role for PAN in poly(A) tail length control in vivo was confirmed by the finding that mRNAs are produced with longer poly(A) tails in PAN-deficient yeast strains. Interestingly, wild-type yeast strains were found to produce transcripts which varied in their maximal poly(A) tail length, and this message-specific length control was lost in PAN-deficient strains. Our data support a model whereby mRNAs are polyadenylated by the 3'-end processing machinery with a long tail, possibly of default length, and then in a PAN-dependent manner, the poly(A) tails are rapidly matured to a message-specific length. The ability to control the length of the poly(A) tail for newly expressed mRNAs has the potential to be an important posttranscriptional regulatory step in gene expression.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, 401 Barker Hall, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720. Phone: (510) 643-7698. Fax: (510) 643-5035. E-mail: asachs{at}uclink4.berkeley.edu.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, November 1998, p. 6548-6559, Vol. 18, No. 11
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. J. Virol. Eukaryot. Cell
Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Clin. Vaccine Immunol. All ASM Journals

Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.