The deadenylation conferred by the 3' untranslated region of a developmentally controlled mRNA in Xenopus embryos is switched to polyadenylation by deletion of a short sequence element.

Philippe Bouvet (1) , Francis Omilli (1) , Yannick Arlot-Bonnemains (1) , Vincent Legagneux (1) , Christian Roghi (1) , Therese Bassez (1) , Howard Beverley Osborne (1)

1 Biologie cellulaire et reproduction

The maternal Xenopus Eg mRNAs are adenylated and translated in the mature oocyte and then, after fertilization, are deadenylated and released from polysomes. Therefore, after fertilization, a change occurs in the cellular mechanisms that control mRNA adenylation. In the study reported here, we show that the 3' untranslated region of Eg2 mRNA contains a cis-acting element that is required for the deadenylation of chimeric RNAs after fertilization. This cis-acting element is contained within a single 17-nucleotide portion of the Eg2 mRNA. Disruption of this deadenylation element allows adenylation of the chimeric transcripts in the embryo. Therefore, this cis-acting element is part of the sequence information required for the developmental switch from adenylation to deadenylation of the maternal Eg2 mRNA in Xenopus embryos.

Domaines: Embryologie et organogenèse

Philippe Bouvet, Francis Omilli, Yannick Arlot-Bonnemains, Vincent Legagneux, Christian Roghi, et al.. The deadenylation conferred by the 3' untranslated region of a developmentally controlled mRNA in Xenopus embryos is switched to polyadenylation by deletion of a short sequence element.. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 1994, 14 (3), pp.1893-900. ⟨hal-00303403⟩