EDEN and EDEN-BP, a cis element and an associated factor that mediate sequence-specific mRNA deadenylation in Xenopus embryos.

Luc Paillard (1) , Francis Omilli (1) , Vincent Legagneux (1) , Therese. Bassez (1) , Dominique Maniey (1) , Howard Beverley Osborne (1)

1 Recombinaisons Génétique

During Xenopus early development, gene expression is regulated mainly at the translational level by the length of the poly(A) tail of mRNAs. The Eg family and c-mos maternal mRNAs are deadenylated rapidly and translationally repressed after fertilization. Here, we characterize a short sequence element (EDEN) responsible for the rapid deadenylation of Eg5 mRNA. Determining the core EDEN sequence permitted us to localize the c-mos EDEN sequence. The c-mos EDEN confered a rapid deadenylation to a reporter gene. The EDEN-specific RNA-binding protein (EDEN-BP) was purified and a cDNA obtained. EDEN-BP is highly homologous to a human protein possibly involved in myotonic dystrophy. Immunodepleting EDEN-BP from an egg extract totally abolished the EDEN-mediated deadenylation activity, but did not affect the default deadenylation activity. Therefore, EDEN-BP constitutes the first trans-acting factor for which an essential role in the specificity of mRNA deadenylation has been directly demonstrated.

Domaines: Embryologie et organogenèse

Luc Paillard, Francis Omilli, Vincent Legagneux, Therese. Bassez, Dominique Maniey, et al.. EDEN and EDEN-BP, a cis element and an associated factor that mediate sequence-specific mRNA deadenylation in Xenopus embryos.. EMBO Journal, 1998, 17 (1), pp.278-87. ⟨10.1093/emboj/17.1.278⟩. ⟨hal-00293006⟩