Function and Evolution of Upstream ORFs in Eukaryotes

Hong Zhang; Yirong Wang; Jian Lu

doi:10.1016/j.tibs.2019.03.002

Function and Evolution of Upstream ORFs in Eukaryotes

Trends Biochem Sci. 2019 Sep;44(9):782-794. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2019.03.002. Epub 2019 Apr 16.

Authors

Hong Zhang¹, Yirong Wang¹, Jian Lu²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Center for Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Center for Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China. Electronic address: LUJ@pku.edu.cn.

PMID: 31003826
DOI: 10.1016/j.tibs.2019.03.002

Abstract

There is growing interest in the role of translational regulation in cellular homeostasis during organismal development. Translation initiation is the rate-limiting step in mRNA translation and is central to translational regulation. Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are regulatory elements that are prevalent in eukaryotic mRNAs. uORFs modulate the translation initiation rate of downstream coding sequences (CDSs) by sequestering ribosomes. Over the past several years, genome-wide studies have revealed the widespread regulatory functions of uORFs in different species in different biological contexts. Here, we review the current understanding of uORF-mediated translational regulation from the perspective of functional and evolutionary genomics and address remaining gaps that deserve further study.

Keywords: RNA-sequencing; coding sequences; evolution; ribosome profiling; stress response; translational regulation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Eukaryota / genetics*
Humans
Open Reading Frames / genetics*