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Review
. 2002;3(3):REVIEWS0004.
doi: 10.1186/gb-2002-3-3-reviews0004. Epub 2002 Feb 28.

Untranslated regions of mRNAs

Flavio Mignone  1 , Carmela Gissi, Sabino Liuni, Graziano Pesole
Affiliations
Review

Untranslated regions of mRNAs

Flavio Mignone et al. Genome Biol. 2002.

Abstract

Gene expression is finely regulated at the post-transcriptional level. Features of the untranslated regions of mRNAs that control their translation, degradation and localization include stem-loop structures, upstream initiation codons and open reading frames, internal ribosome entry sites and various cis-acting elements that are bound by RNA-binding proteins.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The generic structure of a eukaryotic mRNA, illustrating some post-transcriptional regulatory elements that affect gene expression. Abbreviations (from 5' to 3'): UTR, untranslated region; m7G, 7-methyl-guanosine cap; hairpin, hairpin-like secondary structures; uORF, upstream open reading frame; IRES, internal ribosome entry site; CPE, cytoplasmic polyadenylation element; AAUAAA, polyadenylation signal.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The percentage of complete UTR sequences in the different taxonomic classes that contain (a) introns or (b) upstream AUGs, upstream ORFs or IRES elements. Hum, human; mam, other mammals; rod, rodents; av, Aves; vrt, other vertebrates; lil, Liliopsidae; vir, other plants (Viridiplantae); inv, invertebrates; fun, fungi. Data are taken from UTRdb [47].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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