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Download fileKinetochore inactivation by expression of a repressive mRNA
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posted on 2020-08-05, 17:05 authored by Jingxun Chen, Amy Tresenrider, Minghao Chia, David T McSwiggen, Gianpiero Spedale, Victoria Jorgensen, Hanna Liao, Folkert J van Werven, Elçin ÜnalDifferentiation programs such as meiosis depend on extensive gene regulation to mediate cellular morphogenesis. Meiosis requires transient removal of the outer kinetochore, the complex that connects microtubules to chromosomes. How the meiotic gene expression program temporally restricts kinetochore function is unknown. We discovered that in budding yeast, kinetochore inactivation occurs by reducing the abundance of a limiting subunit, Ndc80. Furthermore, we uncovered an integrated mechanism that acts at the transcriptional and translational level to repress NDC80 expression. Central to this mechanism is the developmentally controlled transcription of an alternate NDC80 mRNA isoform, which itself cannot produce protein due to regulatory upstream ORFs in its extended 5’ leader. Instead, transcription of this isoform represses the canonical NDC80 mRNA expression in cis, thereby inhibiting Ndc80 protein synthesis. This model of gene regulation raises the intriguing notion that transcription of an mRNA, despite carrying a canonical coding sequence, can directly cause gene repression.
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S. cerevisiaebudding yeastchromosomesgene regulationgeneskinetochoremeiosistranscriptionuORF translationGene Expression Regulation, FungalKinetochoresMeiosisNuclear ProteinsProtein BiosynthesisRNA IsoformsSaccharomyces cerevisiaeSaccharomyces cerevisiae ProteinsTranscription, Geneticvan Werven FC0012030601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology