Development 130, e1106 (2003)
Copyright © 2003 The Company of Biologists Limited
Spatially controlling translation
Although glp-1 mRNA is abundantly expressed in all blastomeres of
C. elegans embryos up to the eight-cell stage, its protein is present
in only the anterior AB blastomeres of two- and four-cell embryos. Thus, its
translation, which is required for gonad and embryonic development, is
spatially and temporally controlled. This occurs via the spatial control (SCR)
and the temporal control (TCR) regions of the 3' UTR of glp-1.
Now Ogura et al. report, on p.
2495, that POS-1, which translationally regulates another maternal
transcript, apx-1, represses glp-1 translation by binding to
its SCR. A yeast two-hybrid screen also identified a POS-1-interacting
protein, SPN-4 (an RNP-type, RNA-binding protein), that binds to the TCR of
glp-1 and is required for its translation in anterior blastomeres.
The authors propose that a balance between these two proteins controls
glp-1 translation. Given the pleiotropic phenotypes of pos-1
and spn-4 mutants, these proteins probably also regulate the
translation of other maternal RNAs.
Related articles in Development:
- Translational control of maternal glp-1 mRNA by POS-1 and its interacting protein SPN-4 in Caenorhabditis elegans
- Ken-ichi Ogura, Norihito Kishimoto, Shohei Mitani, Keiko Gengyo-Ando, and Yuji Kohara
Development 2003 130: 2495-2503.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
