Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Gomez, Dennis
• Guédin, Aurore
• Mergny, Jean-Louis
• Salles, Bernard
• Riou, Jean-François
• Teulade-Fichou, Marie-Paule
• Calsou, Patrick

Titel

A G-quadruplex structure within the 5'-UTR of TRF2 mRNA represses translation in human cells

Ist Teil von

• Nucleic acids research, 2010-11, Vol.38 (20), p.7187

Ort / Verlag

England

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Telomeres protect chromosome ends from being recognized as double-stranded breaks. Telomeric function is ensured by the shelterin complex in which TRF2 protein is an essential player. The G-rich strand of telomere DNA can fold into G-quadruplex (G4) structure. Small molecules stabilizing G4 structures, named G4 ligands, have been shown to alter telomeric functions in human cells. In this study, we show that a guanine-rich RNA sequence located in the 5'-UTR region of the TRF2 mRNA (hereafter 91TRF2G) is capable of forming a stable quadruplex that causes a 2.8-fold decrease in the translation of a reporter gene in human cells, as compared to a mutant 5'-UTR unable to fold into G4. We also demonstrate that several highly selective G4 ligands, the pyridine dicarboxamide derivative 360A and bisquinolinium compounds Phen-DC(3) and Phen-DC(6), are able to bind the 91TRF2G:RNA sequence and to modulate TRF2 protein translation in vitro. Since the naturally occurring 5'-UTR TRF2:RNA G4 element was used here, which is conserved in several vertebrate orthologs, the present data substantiate a potential translational mechanism mediated by a G4 RNA motif for the downregulation of TRF2 expression.