Alterations of transcription and translation in HeLa cells exposed to amino acid analogs

Abstract

Amino acid analogs, like other effectors of the stress response, induce in mammalian cells the same gene products that are induced upon heat shock; incorporation of the analog into protein is required for induction. We show here that induction by analogs involves controls operating at the levels of both transcription and translation. The electrophoretic patterns of newly made mRNAs simplify with time such that the putative stress protein mRNAs are the only species transported from the nucleus. Concomitantly, the patterns of protein synthesis simplify such that the stress proteins become nearly exclusive polypeptide products. Although the normal mRNAs are either not used or used with greatly reduced efficiency, they are not degraded and retain translatability when transferred to cell-free systems. Soon after the stress response has been induced, there follows a defect in the initiation of polypeptide chains, as evidenced by examination of polysome profiles. Upon prolonged exposure, polysomes are recovered, and although they give rise to stress proteins almost exclusively, the normal mRNAs are still present in these structures. Thus, in addition to the initiation defect, a lesion in elongation may also be involved. The extreme sensitivity of protein synthesis to the inhibition of RNA synthesis, together with the parallel simplifications in the patterns of newly made mRNAs and polypeptides, may imply that only newly made mRNAs are efficiently translated in analog-treated cells.