Ebook: Post-Transcriptional Control of Gene Expression

The last ten years have witnessed a remarkable increase in our awareness of the importance of events subsequent to transcriptional initiation in terms of the regulation and control of gene expression. In particular, the development of recombinant DNA techniques that began in the 1970s provided powerful new tools with which to study the molecular basis of control and regulation at all levels. The resulting investigations revealed a diversity of post-transcriptional mechanisms in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Scientists working on translation, mRNA stability, transcriptional (anti)termination or other aspects of gene expression will often have met at specialist meetings for their own research area. However, only rarely do workers in different areas of post-transcriptional control/ regulation have the opportunity to meet under one roof. We therefore thought it was time to bring together leading representatives of most of the relevant areas in a small workshop intended to encourage interaction across the usual borders of research, both in terms of the processes studied, and with respect to the evolutionary division prokaryotes/eukaryotes. Given the breadth of topics covered and the restrictions in size imposed by the NATO workshop format, it was an extraordinarily difficult task to choose the participants. However, we regarded this first attempt as an experiment on a small scale, intended to explore the possibilities of a meeting of this kind. Judging by the response of the participants during and after the workshop, the effort had been worthwhile.

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The last ten years have witnessed a remarkable increase in our awareness of the importance of events subsequent to transcriptional initiation in terms of the regulation and control of gene expression. In particular, the development of recombinant DNA techniques begun in the 1970s provided powerful new tools with which to study the molecular basis of control and regulation at all lev- els. This up-to-date guide discusses the post-transcriptional processes controlling and regulating gene expression in eucaryotes and procaryotes. The topics covered include transcriptional (anti)termination, mRNA stability, anti-sense RNA, translational control and translational fidelity. An understanding of these mechanisms is an essential requirement for the optimisation of gene expression in various biotechnological applications.

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The last ten years have witnessed a remarkable increase in our awareness of the importance of events subsequent to transcriptional initiation in terms of the regulation and control of gene expression. In particular, the development of recombinant DNA techniques begun in the 1970s provided powerful new tools with which to study the molecular basis of control and regulation at all lev- els. This up-to-date guide discusses the post-transcriptional processes controlling and regulating gene expression in eucaryotes and procaryotes. The topics covered include transcriptional (anti)termination, mRNA stability, anti-sense RNA, translational control and translational fidelity. An understanding of these mechanisms is an essential requirement for the optimisation of gene expression in various biotechnological applications.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-XIX
Ribonucleases: Diversity and Regulation....Pages 1-11
Degradation of puf mRNA in Rhodobacter Capsulatus and its Role in the Regulation of Gene Expression....Pages 13-20
Mutational Analysis of a RNase E Dependent Cleavage Site from a Bacteriophage T4 mRNA....Pages 21-30
The role of a novel site-specific endoribonuclease in the regulated decay of E.coli mRNA — a model for growth-stage dependent mRNA stability in bacteria....Pages 31-43
Regulation of mRNA Stability in Yeast....Pages 45-54
Rapid Degradation of the c-FOS Proto-Oncogene Transcript....Pages 55-64
Post-Transcriptional Control of Gene Expression in Chloroplasts....Pages 65-71
Differential mRNA Stability: A Regulatory Strategy for Hsp70 Synthesis....Pages 73-82
Post-Transcriptional Control of IS10 Transposase Expression: Antisense RNA Binding and Other Conformational Changes Affecting Messenger RNA Stability and Translation....Pages 83-91
The Antisense Approach and Early Xenopus Development....Pages 93-102
Regulation Of ? N-Gene Expression....Pages 103-112
Messenger RNA 3? End Formation in E. Coli and S. Cerevisiae....Pages 113-123
Culture Conditions Affect Differently the Translation of Individual Escherichia Coli mRNAs....Pages 125-133
Post-Transcriptional Control in E.coli: The Translation and Degradation of mRNA....Pages 135-144
Control of Translational Initiation by mRNA Secondary Structure: A Quantitative Analysis....Pages 145-155
The Role of Ribosomal RNA in the Control of Gene Expression....Pages 157-168
The Phage f1 Gene VII Start Site and its Mutants Reveal that Translational Coupling can Confer Function to Inherently Inactive Initiation Sites....Pages 169-184
Measurement of translation rates in vivo at individual codons and implication of these rate differences for gene expression....Pages 185-195
A Short Review of Scanning....Pages 197-206
Yeast mRNA Structure and Translational Efficiency....Pages 207-216
Human Fetal G?- and A?-Globin mRNA and Adult ?-Globin mRNA Exhibit Distinct Translation Efficiency and Affinity for Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 2....Pages 217-225
Effects of the 5?-Leader Sequence of Tobacco Mosaic Virus RNA, or Derivatives Thereof, on Foreign mRNA and Native Viral Gene Expression....Pages 227-236
Translational Control of the cIII Gene of Bacteriophage Lambda....Pages 237-247
The mom Operon of Bacteriophage MU is Regulated by a Combination of Transcriptional and Translational Controls....Pages 249-260
Mechanisms of Ribosomal Protein Translational Autoregulation....Pages 261-275
Translational Feedback Control in E.Coli: The Role of tRNAThr and tRNAThr-Like Structures in the Operator of the Gene for Threonyl-tRNA Synthetase....Pages 277-284
Translational Control of the Transcriptional Activator GCN4 Involves Upstream Open Reading Frames, A General Initiation Factor and a Protein Kinase....Pages 285-297
Expression from polycistronic cauliflower mosaic virus pregenomic RNA....Pages 299-308
Polyadenylation of Cauliflower Mosaic Virus RNA is Controlled by Promoter Proximity....Pages 309-323
The HIV-1 REV Trans-Activator is a Sequence Specific RNA Binding Protein....Pages 325-335
Control of Protein Synthesis by RNA Regulators....Pages 337-346
Untranslated Leader Sequences and Enhanced Messenger RNA Translational Efficiency....Pages 347-357
Coordinate Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Ferritin and Transferrin Receptor Expression: The Role of Regulated RNA-Protein Interaction....Pages 359-365
Translation in Yeast Mitochondria: A Review of General Features and a Case of mRNA-Specific Positive Control....Pages 367-376
The Yeast Pyruvate Kinase Gene is Regulated at Multiple Levels....Pages 377-388
Initiation of Protein Synthesis in E. Coli: The Two Crucial Steps....Pages 389-398
The Function of Initiation Factors in Relation to mRNA—Ribosome Interaction and Regulation of Gene Expression....Pages 399-409
Alternative Translation and Functional Diversity of Release Factor 2 and Lysyl-tRNA Synthetase....Pages 411-420
Gene Products that Mediate Translation Initiation in Yeast....Pages 421-432
Structure/Function of Mammalian Initiation Factors....Pages 433-441
The Eukaroyotic mRNA Cap Binding Protein (eIF-4E): Phosphorylation and Regulation of Cell Growth....Pages 443-453
Peptide Chain Initiation in Animal Cells: Mechanism and Regulation....Pages 455-464
Phosphorylation of Initiation and Elongation Factors and the Control of Translation....Pages 465-474
Regulation of Protein Synthesis in Mammalian Systems by the Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor....Pages 475-485
Functional Role and Biochemical Properties of Yeast Peptide Elongation Factor 3 (EF-3)....Pages 487-495
Translational Movements....Pages 497-509
Ribosomal Frameshift and Frame-Jump Sites as Control Points during Elongation....Pages 511-520
The Ribosomal Frame-Shift Signal of Infectious Bronchitis Virus....Pages 521-526
Control of Translational Accuracy in Yeast: The Role of the Sal4 (Sup45) Protein....Pages 527-537
HIV pol Expression via a Ribosomal Frameshift....Pages 539-548
Protein Modifications and Mitochondrial Import of Yeast Cytochrome c: An Overview....Pages 549-555
Back Matter....Pages 557-566
....Pages 567-577