Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) represents a eukaryotic quality control pathway that recognizes and rapidly degrades transcripts harbouring nonsense mutations to limit accumulation of non-functional and potentially toxic truncated polypeptides. A critical component of the NMD machinery is UPF1, an RNA helicase whose ATPase activity is essential for NMD, but for which the precise function and...

In eukaryotes, a surveillance pathway known as nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) regulates the abundance of messenger RNAs containing premature termination codons (PTCs). In mammalian cells, it has been asserted that the NMD-relevant first round of translation is special and involves initiation by a specific protein heterodimer, the nuclear cap-binding complex (CBC). Arguing against a requirement f...

An Aspergillus nidulans mutation, designated nmdA1, has been selected as a partial suppressor of a frameshift mutation and shown to truncate the homologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) surveillance component Nmd2p/Upf2p. nmdA1 elevates steady-state levels of premature termination codon-containing transcripts, as demonstrated using mutations in genes encoding...

Termination efficiency of stop codons depends on the first 3' flanking (+4) base in bacteria and eukaryotes. In both Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, termination read-through is reduced in the presence of +4U; however, the molecular mechanism underlying +4U function is poorly understood. Here, we perform comparative genomics analysis on 25 bacterial species (covering Actinobacteri...

The nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) pathway subjects mRNAs with premature termination codons (PTCs) to rapid decay. The conserved Upf1-3 complex interacts with the eukaryotic translation release factors, eRF3 and eRF1, and triggers NMD when translation termination takes place at a PTC. Contrasting models postulate central roles in PTC-recognition for the exon junction complex in mammals versus th...

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a quality-control mechanism that selectively degrades mRNAs harboring premature termination (nonsense) codons. If translated, these mRNAs can produce truncated proteins with dominant-negative or deleterious gain-of-function activities. In this review, we describe the molecular mechanism of NMD. We first cover conserved factors known to be involved in NMD in...

One-third of monogenic inherited diseases result from premature termination codons (PTCs). Readthrough of in-frame PTCs enables synthesis of full-length functional proteins. However, extended variability in the response to readthrough treatment is found among patients, which correlates with the level of nonsense transcripts. Here, we aimed to reveal cellular pathways affecting this inter-patien...

Aminoglycosides are chemically diverse, broad-spectrum antibiotics that target functional centers within the bacterial ribosome to impact all four principle stages (initiation, elongation, termination, and recycling) of the translation mechanism. The propensity of aminoglycosides to induce miscoding errors that suppress the termination of protein synthesis supports their potential as therapeuti...