Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on October 2, 2008
Nucleic Acids Research 2008 36(19):6260-6268; doi:10.1093/nar/gkn511
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Nucleic Acids Research, 2008, Vol. 36, No. 19 6260-6268
© 2008 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Genomics |
G-quadruplexes: the beginning and end of UTRs
1Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thompson Ave, Cambridge CB3 0HE and 2University Chemical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +44 1223 337 256; Fax: +44 1223 337 000; Email: jlh29{at}cam.ac.uk
Correspondence may also be addressed to Shankar Balasubramanian. Tel: +44 1223 336 347; Fax: +44 1223 336 913; Email: sbl0031{at}cam.ac.uk
Received April 18, 2008. Revised July 20, 2008. Accepted July 25, 2008.
Molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression can occur either before or after transcription. The information for post-transcriptional regulation can lie within the sequence or structure of the RNA transcript and it has been proposed that G-quadruplex nucleic acid sequence motifs may regulate translation as well as transcription. Here, we have explored the incidence of G-quadruplex motifs in and around the untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA. We observed a significant strand asymmetry, consistent with a general depletion of G-quadruplex-forming RNA. We also observed a positional bias in two distinct regions, each suggestive of a specific function. We observed an excess of G-quadruplex motifs towards the 5'-ends of 5'-UTRs, supportive of a hypothesis linking 5'-UTR RNA G-quadruplexes to translational control. We then analysed the vicinity of 3'-UTRs and observed an over-representation of G-quadruplex motifs immediately after the 3'-end of genes, especially in those cases where another gene is in close proximity, suggesting that G-quadruplexes may be involved in the termination of gene transcription.
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