Elucidation of physiological roles of translational regulation mediated by upstream open reading frame-encoded peptides in plants

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25440122
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Plant molecular biology/Plant physiology
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: ONOUCHI Hitoshi 北海道大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (50322839)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: uORF / 翻訳制御 / リボソーム / 新生ペプチド / シロイヌナズナ / ポプラ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are small ORFs present in the 5′ untranslated regions of many eukaryotic mRNAs. Some uORFs encode regulatory peptides that repress translation of the main ORF. Such translational regulation mediated by a uORF-encoded peptide was considered to be an exceptional regulatory mechanism. However, we recently identified a variety of genes whose expression is regulated by a uORF-encoded peptide, suggesting that uORF peptide-mediated translational regulation plays a wider physiological role than previously thought. In this study, we investigated physiological roles of the regulatory uORF peptides that we identified, and found a uORF involved in developmental regulation and a uORF that specifically represses main ORF expression in actively proliferating cells. Furthermore, this study revealed a novel mechanism of translational regulation, which involves two uORF-encoded peptides that have opposite regulatory roles.

Free Research Field

分子生物学