Figure 2.
Effect of mutations in the 3'-UTR of GATA4 on mRNA folding. Using the program GeneQuest (Lasergene 6.0), the effect of sequence alterations on RNA folding was predicted using the first c.+500 nt in the 3'-UTR of GATA4. GeneQuest uses the Vienna RNA folding procedure, taken from Zuker's optimal RNA folding algorithm [43], to fold the sense strand of selected DNA regions as RNA. Compared to the reference sequence, 7/9 mutations would result in faulty RNA folding, on which five patterns here are shown. Same pattern was observed for c.+10 T > C and c.+44T > A.