Stop-codon read-through arises largely from molecular errors and is generally nonadaptive

Stop-codon read-through refers to the phenomenon that a ribosome goes past the stop codon and continues translating into the otherwise untranslated region (UTR) of a transcript. Recent ribosome-profiling experiments in eukaryotes uncovered widespread stop-codon read-through that also varies among ti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS genetics 2019-05, Vol.15 (5), p.e1008141
Main Authors: Li, Chuan, Zhang, Jianzhi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3' Untranslated Regions
Animals
Biology and Life Sciences
Codon, Terminator - genetics
Codons
Conserved sequence
Criminal investigation
Drosophila - genetics
Evolution
Evolution, Molecular
Evolutionary biology
Fruit flies (Tephritidae)
Fruits
Gene expression
Genetic research
Genomes
Genomics
Hypotheses
Insects
Peptides
Protein synthesis
Proteins
Proteomes
Research and Analysis Methods
Ribosomes
Stop codon
Transcription
Transcription Termination, Genetic - physiology
Transcription, Genetic - genetics
Trends
Yeasts - genetics
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Summary:Stop-codon read-through refers to the phenomenon that a ribosome goes past the stop codon and continues translating into the otherwise untranslated region (UTR) of a transcript. Recent ribosome-profiling experiments in eukaryotes uncovered widespread stop-codon read-through that also varies among tissues, prompting the adaptive hypothesis that stop-codon read-through is an important, regulated mechanism for generating proteome diversity. Here we propose and test a competing hypothesis that stop-codon read-through arises mostly from molecular errors and is largely nonadaptive. The error hypothesis makes distinct predictions about the probability of read-through, frequency of sequence motifs for read-through, and conservation of the read-through region, each of which is supported by genome-scale data from yeasts and fruit flies. Thus, except for the few cases with demonstrated functions, stop-codon read-through is generally nonadaptive. This finding, along with other molecular errors recently quantified, reveals a much less precise or orderly cellular life than is commonly thought.
ISSN:1553-7404
1553-7390
1553-7404
DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1008141