The Rous sarcoma virus gag gene contains a cis-acting negative regulator of splicing (NRS) element that is implicated in viral polyadenylation regulation. To study the mechanism of polyadenylation promotion at the viral poly(A) site located over 8 kb downstream, we performed in vitro polyadenylation analysis. RNA containing only the poly(A) site and flanking sequences in the 3' long terminal re...

INTRODUCTION Polyadenylation is the process in which the pre-mRNA is cleaved at the poly(A) site and a poly(A) tail is added - a process necessary for normal mRNA formation. Genes with multiple poly(A) sites can undergo alternative polyadenylation (APA), producing distinct mRNA isoforms with different 3' untranslated regions (3' UTRs) and in some cases different coding regions. Two thirds of al...

The intercistronic gene junctions of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) contain conserved sequence elements that are important for polyadenylation and transcription termination of upstream transcript as well as reinitiation of transcription of downstream transcript. To examine the role of the putative polyadenylation signal 3'AUACU(7)5' at the gene junctions in polyadenylation and transcription t...

mRNA polyadenylation is a critical cellular process in eukaryotes. It involves 3' end cleavage of nascent mRNAs and addition of the poly(A) tail, which plays important roles in many aspects of the cellular metabolism of mRNA. The process is controlled by various cis-acting elements surrounding the cleavage site, and their binding factors. In this study, we surveyed genome regions containing cle...

In the transcriptionally inert maturing oocyte and early embryo, control of gene expression is largely mediated by regulated changes in translational activity of maternal mRNAs. Some mRNAs are activated in response to poly(A) tail lengthening; in other cases activation results from de-repression of the inactive or masked mRNA. The 3' UTR cis-acting elements that direct these changes are defined...

Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) requires large amounts of unspliced RNA for replication. Splicing and polyadenylation are coupled in the cells they infect, which raises the question of how viral RNA is efficiently polyadenylated in the absence of splicing. Optimal RSV polyadenylation requires a far-upstream splicing control element, the negative regulator of splicing (NRS), that binds SR proteins and ...

Cytoplasmic polyadenylation-induced mRNA translation is a hallmark of early animal development. In Xenopus oocytes, where the molecular mechanism has been defined, the core factors that control this process include CPEB, an RNA binding protein whose association with the CPE specifies which mRNAs undergo polyadenylation; CPSF, a multifactor complex that interacts with the near-ubiquitous polyade...

Cytoplasmic polyadenylation plays a key role in the translational control of mRNAs driving biological processes such as gametogenesis, cell-cycle progression, and synaptic plasticity. What determines the distinct time of polyadenylation and extent of translational control of a given mRNA, however, is poorly understood. The polyadenylation-regulated translation is controlled by the cytoplasmic p...

The presence of a polyadenylation signal in the repeat (R) region of the HIV-1 genome, which is located at both the 5' and 3' ends of the viral transcripts, requires differential regulation of polyadenylation. The HIV-1 poly(A) site can fold in a stable stem-loop structure that is well-conserved among different human and simian immunodeficiency viruses. In this study, we tested the effect of th...