The bloodstream form of Trypanosoma brucei persists in mammalian hosts through a population survival strategy depending on antigenic variation cell surface coat composed the variant glycoprotein (VSG). integrity VSG is essential and blocking its synthesis results division cycle arrest just prior to cytokinesis. This observation indicates that levels are monitored has mechanisms respond disrupti...

In this issue of BioEssays, Hamid and Makeyev explore an interesting new idea regarding the evolutionary origins of regulated mRNA turnover pathways [1]. One such pathway is nonsensemediated decay (NMD) that detects and targets for degradation a subset of mRNAs including transcripts with premature translation termination codons. The authors develop a model in which these pathways initially evol...

Title of Document: mRNA SUICIDE: DESTABILIZATION BY PROGRAMMED RIBOSOMAL FRAMESHIFTING Jonathan L. Jacobs, Ph.D., 2006 Directed By: Associate Professor Jonathan D. Dinman, Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Biology Cis-acting mRNA elements that promote programmed -1 ribosomal frameshifting (-1 PRF) redirect a fraction of translating ribosomes into a new translational reading frame. In virus...

Nonsense mutations cover about 10% of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and generate premature termination codons (PTCs) leading to premature translational termination and causing the synthesis of truncated non-functional or partially functional CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) protein. The read-through approach is the suppression of translation terminations at PTCs and it...

To better understand the role of alternative splicing, we conducted a large-scale analysis of reliable alternative isoforms of known human genes. Each isoform was classified according to its splice pattern and supporting evidence. We found that one-third of the alternative transcripts examined contain premature termination codons, and most persist even after rigorous filtering by multiple metho...