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Review
. 2017 Apr;50(4):175-185.
doi: 10.5483/bmbrep.2017.50.4.015.

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay at the crossroads of many cellular pathways

Fabrice Lejeune  1
Affiliations
Review

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay at the crossroads of many cellular pathways

Fabrice Lejeune. BMB Rep. 2017 Apr.

Abstract

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a surveillance mechanism ensuring the fast decay of mRNAs harboring a premature termination codon (PTC). As a quality control mechanism, NMD distinguishes PTCs from normal termination codons in order to degrade PTC-carrying mRNAs only. For this, NMD is connected to various other cell processes which regulate or activate it under specific cell conditions or in response to mutations, mis-regulations, stresses, or particular cell programs. These cell processes and their connections with NMD are the focus of this review, which aims both to illustrate the complexity of the NMD mechanism and its regulation and to highlight the cellular consequences of NMD inhibition. [BMB Reports 2017; 50(4): 175-185].

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The author has no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Models of NMD activation. (A) The EJC-dependent model. PTCs are recognized if they are present more than 50–55 nucleotides upstream of an exon-exon junction during the pioneer round of translation. The mRNA carries the CBP20/CBP80 hetero-dimer at the 5′cap and PABPN1 and PABPC1 on the poly(A) tail at the 3′ end. In this model UPF1 is recruited by the UPF3X and UPF2 proteins bound to the exon junction complex (EJC). Translation termination occurs because UPF1 interacts with the release factors eRF1 (1) and eRF3 (3). (B) The PTC-PABPC1 distance model. PTC recognition is based on the probability that translation termination will occur via the interaction between UPF1 and release factors (NMD translation termination) or via the interaction between PABPC1 and release factors (normal translation termination).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
NMD interacts with cellular processes in different ways: (i) bidirectional interactions in which NMD and a cellular process influence each other (bidirectional arrows); (ii) unidirectional interactions in which NMD influences a cellular process (arrows pointing a cellular process); (iii) unidirectional interactions in which a cellular process regulates NMD efficiency (arrows pointing NMD).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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