Project description:Negative elongation factor (NELF), a four-subunit protein complex in metazoan, plays an important role in regulating promoter-proximal pausing of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII). Genetic studies demonstrate that the B subunit of mouse NELF (NELF-B) is critical for embryonic development and homeostasis in adult tissue. We report here that both human and mouse NELF-B proteins are translated from a non-AUG codon upstream of the annotated AUG. This non-AUG codon sequence is conserved in mammalian NELF-B but not NELF-B orthologs of lower metazoan. The full-length and a truncated NELF-B that starts at the first AUG codon interact with the other three NELF subunits with comparable efficiency. Furthermore, these two forms of NELF-B have a similar impact on the transcriptomics and proliferation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts. These results strongly suggest that additional amino acid sequence upstream of the annotated AUG is dispensable for the essential function of NELF in supporting cell growth in vitro. While the majority of mouse adult tissues surveyed exclusively express the full-length NELF-B protein, mouse kidney only contains a truncated NELF-B protein with the same apparent size as the AUG-initiated version. This result raises the distinct possibility that translational initiation of mouse NELF-B is regulated in a tissue-dependent manner. triplicates for ATG-Nelf-B, triplicates for FL-Nelf-B
Project description:Aberrant translation initiation at non-AUG start codons is associated with multiple cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Nevertheless, how non-AUG translation is regulated differently from canonical translation is poorly understood. We thus used start codon-selective reporters and ribosome profiling to characterize how translation from non-AUG start codons responds to protein synthesis inhibitors in human cells. These analyses surprisingly revealed that translation of non-AUG reporters and the endogenous GUG-encoded DAP5 (eIF4G2/p97) mRNA are resistant to cycloheximide (CHX), a translation inhibitor which slows but does not completely abrogate elongation. Our data suggest that slowly elongating ribosomes cause queuing of scanning pre-initiation complexes (PIC), preferentially enhancing otherwise poor recognition of non-AUG start codons. Consistent with this model, limiting PIC formation or scanning sensitizes non-AUG translation to CHX. Moreover, PIC queuing can cause translation from an AUG codon in a poor context to become less sensitive to CHX. We further find that non-AUG translation is resistant to other inhibitors that target ribosomes within the coding sequence, but not those targeting newly initiated ribosomes. In total, these data indicate that ribosome queuing enables mRNAs with poor initiation context, namely those from non-AUG start codons, to be resistant to pharmacological inhibitors.
Project description:Negative elongation factor (NELF), a four-subunit protein complex in metazoan, plays an important role in regulating promoter-proximal pausing of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII). Genetic studies demonstrate that the B subunit of mouse NELF (NELF-B) is critical for embryonic development and homeostasis in adult tissue. We report here that both human and mouse NELF-B proteins are translated from a non-AUG codon upstream of the annotated AUG. This non-AUG codon sequence is conserved in mammalian NELF-B but not NELF-B orthologs of lower metazoan. The full-length and a truncated NELF-B that starts at the first AUG codon interact with the other three NELF subunits with comparable efficiency. Furthermore, these two forms of NELF-B have a similar impact on the transcriptomics and proliferation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts. These results strongly suggest that additional amino acid sequence upstream of the annotated AUG is dispensable for the essential function of NELF in supporting cell growth in vitro. While the majority of mouse adult tissues surveyed exclusively express the full-length NELF-B protein, mouse kidney only contains a truncated NELF-B protein with the same apparent size as the AUG-initiated version. This result raises the distinct possibility that translational initiation of mouse NELF-B is regulated in a tissue-dependent manner.
Project description:The translation pre-initiation complex (PIC) scans the mRNA for an AUG codon in favorable context. Previous findings suggest that the factor eIF1 discriminates against non-AUG start codons by impeding full accommodation of Met-tRNAi in the P site of the 40S ribosomal subunit, necessitating eIF1 dissociation for start codon selection. Consistent with this, yeast eIF1 substitutions that weaken its binding to the PIC increase initiation at UUG codons on a mutant his4 mRNA and particular synthetic mRNA reporters; and also at the AUG start codon of the mRNA for eIF1 itself owing to its poor Kozak context. It was not known however whether such eIF1 mutants increase initiation at suboptimal start codons genome-wide. By ribosome profiling, we show that the eIF1-L96P variant confers increased translation of numerous upstream open reading frames (uORFs) initiating with either near-cognate codons (NCCs) or AUGs in poor context. The increased uORF translation is frequently associated with reduced translation of the downstream main coding sequences (CDS). Initiation is also elevated at the NCCs initiating N-terminal extensions on GRS1 and ALA1 mRNAs, and at a small set of main CDS AUG codons with especially poor context, including that of eIF1 itself. Thus, eIF1 acts throughout the yeast translatome to discriminate against NCC start codons and AUGs in poor context; and impairing this function enhances the repressive effects of uORFs on CDS translation and alters the ratios of protein isoforms translated from near-cognate versus AUG start codons.
Project description:Translation start site selection in eukaryotes is influenced by context nucleotides flanking the AUG codon and by levels of the eukaryotic translation initiation factors eIF1 and eIF5. In a search of human genes, we identified 5 Hox gene paralogs initiated by AUG codons in conserved suboptimal context as well as 13 Hox genes that contain evolutionarily conserved upstream open reading frames (uORFs) that initiate at AUG codons in poor sequence context. We analyzed published CAGE-seq data and generated CAGE-seq data from mRNAs from mouse somites. These data demonstrate that the 5’ leaders of Hox mRNAs of interest contain conserved uORFs, are much shorter than reported, and lack previously proposed IRES elements. We show that the conserved uORFs inhibit Hox reporter expression and that altering the stringency of start codon selection by overexpressing eIF1 or eIF5 modulates the expression of Hox reporters. We also show that modifying ribosome homeostasis by depleting a large ribosomal subunit protein or treating cells with sublethal concentrations of puromycin leads to lower stringency of start codon selection. Thus, altering global translation can confer gene-specific effects through altered start codon selection stringency.
Project description:Diverse elements within the 5’ untranslated region of an mRNA can influence the translation efficiency at the main AUG codon. We previously identified a core picornaviral like Y16X11-AUG motif with 16-nt polypyrimidine CU-tract separated by an 11-nt spacer sequence from the 13th AUG codon recognized as the preferred initiation site within the Triticum mosaic virus (TriMV) internal ribosome entry site (IRES) element. The motif is proposed to function as an internal ribosomal landing site at the designated start codon. Here we exposed the cooperative role of multiple CU-rich segments flanking the TriMV YX-AUG motif to drive internal initiation of translation at the preferred start site. We propose that these auxiliary domains may enhance the ribosome capacity at proximity of the correct initiation site. These polypyrimidine tracts can be modulated with a cryptic AUG and in a position-dependent manner to replace the native YX-AUG motif and to reprogram translation to the upstream sites, and thus uncovering a new layer of control of the selection of the initiation site. In line with these observations, mass spec analysis of proteins directly interacting with translationally impaired TriMV IRES mutants that bear these motifs indicated an enrichment in 40S and 60S ribosomal related proteins, revealing a new function of polypyrimidine tracts to regulate IRES-driven translation. Accessibility of these RNA regions for in trans interaction was validated by SHAPE analysis of the entire TriMV leader sequence and supported by the ability of anti-sense oligonucleotides designed to block the CU-tracts accessibility to impair IRES activity. This is the first evidence that defines the core modular domains required for start codon selection in a complex, multi-AUG viral 5’UTR for translation in plants.
Project description:Genomic analyses in budding yeast have helped to define the foundational principles of eukaryotic gene expression, but have systematically excluded specific classes of potential coding regions, including those with non-AUG start codons. Without methods to define coding regions empirically, the prevalence of these non-canonical coding regions has been impossible to assess. Here, we applied an experimental approach to globally annotate translation initiation sites in yeast and identified a class of 149 genes that encode N-terminally extended alternate protein isoforms that result from translation initiation at non-AUG codons upstream of the annotated AUG start codon. These alternate isoforms are produced in concert with canonical isoforms and are translated with a high degree of specificity, resulting from initiation at only a small subset of possible start codons in 5’ leader regions. Their translation is enriched during meiosis, and is induced by low eIF5A levels, which are observed in this context. These findings reveal widespread production of non-canonical protein isoforms and, more generally, show unexpected complexity to the rules by which the budding yeast genome is decoded.
Project description:The fidelity of start codon recognition by ribosomes is paramount during protein synthesis. The textbook knowledge of eukaryotic translation initiation depicts 5’→3’ unidirectional migration of the pre-initiation complex (PIC) along the 5’UTR. In probing translation initiation from ultra-short 5’UTR, we report that an AUG triplet near the 5’ end can be selected via PIC backsliding. The bi-directional ribosome scanning is supported by competitive selection of closely spaced AUG codons and recognition of two initiation sites flanking an internal ribosome entry site. Transcriptome-wide PIC profiling reveals footprints with an oscillation pattern near the 5’ end and start codons. Depleting the RNA helicase eIF4A leads to reduced PIC oscillations and impaired selection of 5’ end start codons. Enhancing the ATPase activity of eIF4A promotes nonlinear PIC scanning and stimulates upstream translation initiation. The helicase-mediated PIC conformational switch may provide an operational mechanism that unifies ribosome recruitment, scanning, and start codon selection.
Project description:Selection of the translation start codon is a key step during protein synthesis in human cells. We obtained cryo-EM structures of human 48S initiation complexes and characterized the intermediates of codon recognition by kinetic methods using eIF1A as a reporter. Both approaches capture two distinct ribosome populations formed on an mRNA with a cognate AUG codon in the presence of eIF1A, eIF1, eIF2–GTP–Met-tRNAiMet, eIF3, eIF4A and eIF4B. The ‘open’ 40S subunit conformation differs from the human 48S scanning complex and represents an intermediate preceding the codon recognition step. The ‘closed’ form is similar to reported structures of complexes from yeast and mammals formed upon codon recognition, except for the orientation of eIF1A, which is unique in our structure. Kinetic experiments show how various initiation factors mediate the population distribution of open and closed conformations until 60S subunit docking. Our results provide insights into the timing and structure of human translation initiation intermediates and suggest the differences in the mechanisms of start codon selection between mammals and yeast.
Project description:Translation initiation generally occurs at AUG codons in eukaryotes although it has been shown that non-AUG or non-canonical translation initiation can also occur. However, the evidence for non-canonical translation initiation sites (TISs) is largely indirect and based on ribosome profiling studies. Here, using a strategy specifically designed to enrich N-termini of proteins, we demonstrate that many human proteins are translated at non-canonical TISs. The large majority of TISs that mapped to 5’ untranslated regions were non-canonical and led to N-terminal extension of annotated proteins or translation of upstream small open reading frames (uORF). There has been little controversy on whether the corresponding amino acid to the start codon is incorporated at TIS or methionine is still incorporated. Notably, methionine was incorporated at almost all non-canonical TISs identified in this study. Comparison of the TISs determined through mass spectrometry with ribosome profiling data revealed that about two-thirds of the novel annotations were indeed supported by ribosome profiling data. The sequence orthology analysis and relative translation frequency analysis of non-canonical TISs over canonical ones suggests that those non-canonical TISs are not leaky but they can have certain biological functions. Overall, this study provides evidence of protein translation initiation at non-canonical TISs and indicates that further studies are required for elucidation of functional implications of such non-canonical translation initiation.