Key result
Most mRNAs and lncRNAs intrinsically fold into secondary structures that bring their 5' and 3' ends into close proximity (mean distance of ~4 nm), which may facilitate translation regulation and mRNA decay.
Why the study?
The innate proximity of RNA ends resulting from extensive intramolecular secondary structure might have important biological implications that remain unexplored.
The inherent compactness of mRNA might regulate translation initiation and mediate coupling of 3' deadenylation to 5' end mRNA decay.
The 5’ cap and 3’ poly(A) tail of mRNA are known to synergistically regulate mRNA translation and stability. Recent computational and experimental studies revealed that both protein-coding and non-coding RNAs will fold with extensive intramolecular secondary structure, which will result in close distances between the sequence ends. This proximity of the ends is a sequence-independent, universal property of most RNAs. Only low-complexity sequences without guanosines are without secondary structure and exhibit end-to-end distances expected for RNA random coils. The innate proximity of RNA ends might have important biological implications that remain unexplored. In particular, the inherent compactness of mRNA might regulate translation initiation by facilitating the formation of protein complexes that bridge mRNA 5’ and 3’ ends. Additionally, the proximity of mRNA ends might mediate coupling of 3′ deadenylation to 5′ end mRNA decay.
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Ermolenko et al. (2020) reported a review. Most mRNAs and lncRNAs intrinsically fold into secondary structures that bring their 5' and 3' ends into close proximity (mean distance of ~4 nm), which may facilitate translation regulation and mRNA decay.
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