Effect of sequence context at stop codons on efficiency of reinitiation in GCN4 translational control

Translational control of the GCN4 gene involves two short open reading frames in the mRNA leader (uORF1 and uORF4) that differ greatly in the ability to allow reinitiation at GCN4 following their own translation. The low efficiency of reinitiation characteristic of uORF4 can be reconstituted in a hybrid element in which the last codon of uORF1 and 10 nucleotides 3' to its stop codon (the termination region) are substituted with the corresponding nucleotides from uORF4. To define the features of these 13 nucleotides that determine their effects on reinitiation, we separately randomized the sequence of the third codon and termination region of the uORF1-uORF4 hybrid and selected mutant alleles with the high-level reinitiation that is characteristic of uORF1. The results indicate that many different A+U-rich triplets present at the third codon of uORF1 can overcome the inhibitory effect of the termination region derived from uORF4 on the efficiency of reinitiation at GCN4. Efficient reinitiation is not associated with codons specifying a particular amino acid or isoacceptor tRNA. Similarly, we found that a diverse collection of A+U-rich sequences present in the termination region of uORF1 could restore efficient reinitiation at GCN4 in the presence of the third codon derived from uORF4. To explain these results, we propose that reinitiation can be impaired by stable base pairing between nucleotides flanking the uORF1 stop codon and either the tRNA which pairs with the third codon, the rRNA, or sequences located elsewhere in GCN4 mRNA. We suggest that these interactions delay the resumption of scanning following peptide chain termination at the uORF and thereby lead to ribosome dissociation from the mRNA.

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