Inclusion of 5' UTR and the coding region for folding an eukaryotic mRNA

In eukaryotic organisms, the complete mature mRNA is transported from nucleus into cytoplasm where many translation-regulation processes take place. Thus, the eukaryotic mRNA is very likely to have time to fold as an entity (perhaps in the presence of mRNA binding proteins that are beyond our means for computational modeling). Because long-range base-pairing interactions are common in RNA secondary structures, the 3' UTR region of the eukaryotic mRNA is unlikely to be folded as a separate domain independent of the rest of the mRNA. This implies that the secondary structure of the 3' UTR region can be influenced by other regions of the mRNA molecule. Therefore, it would be prudent to include bases of the 5' UTR region and the coding region (CD), especially the part of coding region adjacent to the 3' UTR, even if the primary interest is to predict the structure of the 3' UTR. We have observed that, in some cases, this practice can substantially increase the accuracy of the predictions. Here we give a specific example.

In the case of pMV19, a lin-41 3' UTR reporter with two wild-type binding sites for let-7 (Vella et al. Genes Dev. 18, 132-137, 2004), the inclusion of the lin-41 5' UTR region and coding region for RNA folding makes a drastic difference on the predictions. Since pMV19 is not repressed by let-7, there should be no effective let-7 binding sites in the 3' UTR region. When we include the 5' UTR and the coding region for RNA folding, the energetic results agree with the experimental observation. However, if we fold the 3' UTR alone without including the 5' UTR and the coding region, we identify several good binding sites, which disagree with the testing data. The results from STarMir are given below.


Energetic results for including 5' UTR and the coding region for folding the target
Target name   = pMV19
microRNA name = let7

Site 1
 dG_{total}             = -6.079
 dG_{disruption}        = -9.021
 dG_{hybrid}            = -15.1
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -0.455

 5'->3'         U    UUUU         UUUAAGUC     U
 Target   284    UUGU    UAGCUU CU        ACCUC   314
                 ||||    |||||| ||        ||||| 
 miRNA     22    GAUA    GUUGGA GA        UGGAG   1
 3'->5'        UU    U         U               U
 
Site 2
 dG_{total}             = -2.231
 dG_{disruption}        = -12.869
 dG_{hybrid}            = -15.1
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -0.108

 5'->3'        U   CCCAC     AUG  C   G   U
 Target   128   ACU     CAACC   GC GCU UCA   155
                |||     |||||   || ||| ||| 
 miRNA     22   UGA     GUUGG   UG UGG AGU   1
 3'->5'        U   UAU       A    A        

Energetic results for using only the 3' UTR for RNA folding
Target name   = pMV19
microRNA name = let7

Site 1
 dG_{total}             = -22.342
 dG_{disruption}        = -6.658
 dG_{hybrid}            = -29.0
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -2.335

 5'->3'         U          AUU       U
 Target    84    UUAUACAACC   CUGCCUC   105
                 ||||||||||   ||||||| 
 miRNA     22    GAUAUGUUGG   GAUGGAG   1
 3'->5'        UU          AU        U
 
Site 2
 dG_{total}             = -18.667
 dG_{disruption}        = -9.333
 dG_{hybrid}            = -28.0
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -0.171

 5'->3'         U          GUU    A    A
 Target    35    UUAUACAACC   CUAC CUCA   58
                 ||||||||||   |||| |||| 
 miRNA     22    GAUAUGUUGG   GAUG GAGU   1
 3'->5'        UU          AU           
 
Site 3
 dG_{total}             = -14.182
 dG_{disruption}        = -3.118
 dG_{hybrid}            = -17.3
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -0.771

 5'->3'            C    UG     U    C
 Target   215       UACA  CU CU UCUC   231
                    ||||  || || |||| 
 miRNA     22       AUGU  GA GA GGAG   1
 3'->5'        UUGAU    UG  U  U    U
 
Site 4
 dG_{total}             = -11.447
 dG_{disruption}        = -4.353
 dG_{hybrid}            = -15.8
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -2.074

 5'->3'        G   C  UG A    U  C  G  
 Target   106   AAC AU  A ACCU CU CC     127
                ||| ||  | |||| || ||   
 miRNA     22   UUG UA  U UGGA GA GG     1
 3'->5'            A  UG      U  U  AGU
 
Site 5
 dG_{total}             = -9.793
 dG_{disruption}        = -5.307
 dG_{hybrid}            = -15.1
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -2.747

 5'->3'         U    UUUU         UUUAAGUC     U
 Target   284    UUGU    UAGCUU CU        ACCUC   314
                 ||||    |||||| ||        ||||| 
 miRNA     22    GAUA    GUUGGA GA        UGGAG   1
 3'->5'        UU    U         U               U
 
Site 6
 dG_{total}             = -9.457
 dG_{disruption}        = -10.143
 dG_{hybrid}            = -19.6
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -0.3

 5'->3'               A        AG   G  
 Target     2          GGCCUACU  ACC     16
                       ||||||||  |||   
 miRNA     22          UUGGAUGA  UGG     1
 3'->5'        UUGAUAUG             AGU
 
Site 7
 dG_{total}             = -2.908
 dG_{disruption}        = -12.592
 dG_{hybrid}            = -15.5
 dG_{N}+dG_{initiation} = -1.012

 5'->3'        U   CCCAC     AUG  C   G   U
 Target   128   ACU     CAACC   GC GCU UCA   155
                |||     |||||   || ||| ||| 
 miRNA     22   UGA     GUUGG   UG UGG AGU   1
 3'->5'        U   UAU       A    A        

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