After posting some microtubule stuff, it's time for an entry about mRNA.
RNA granules are very intriguing. They are thought to transport RNA in some cell types such as neurons or Oocytes, and store/degrade mRNA in other cell types. Recently the RNAi machinery is thought to localize to some of these dense structures too. How are the granules/processing bodies formed? Well it turns out that proteins thought to have prion like properties (TIA-1 and CPEB) may serve as scaffolds that support these granules. To read more check out this review in the latest JCB.
Ref: Paul Anderson and Nancy Kedersha. RNA granules JCB (2006) 172:803-808
- Log in to post comments
More like this
I just wanted to post a brief entry on the newest paper from the Moore lab. I've already hinted at some of these results in a post from last year.
As you all know, mRNA is made and processed in the nucleus. During mRNA synthesis, all the introns must be removed and all the exon sequences must be…
There are plenty of large mRNA agregates in cells. In the past few years, two of these structures have gained quite a bit of attention, Stress Granules (SGs) and Processing Bodies (PBs). mRNAs in SGs are loaded with 48S complex, which consists of the small ribosomal subunit, the cap binding complex…
I've been struggling with eIF4E. You see eIF4E is the major cytosolic cap binding complex. When mRNA is synthesized in the nucleus the cap is loaded with nuclear cap binding complex, CBP80/20. Then (the story goes) the mRNA is exported to the cytoplasm where the ribosome engages the transcript and…
It's been a while since I've written about mRNA and mRNA export. There has been lots of CPEB papers (cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein), but nothing fundamentally new at the molecular level. As for mRNA export, the Reed lab will have a big paper out soon, and when that comes out I…