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. 1986 Nov 11;14(21):8347–8360. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.21.8347

The relationship between mRNA stability and length in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

T C Santiago, I J Purvis, A J Bettany, A J Brown
PMCID: PMC311863  PMID: 3537957

Abstract

A rapid and convenient procedure has been developed for the measurement of mRNA half-life in S.cerevisiae using the transcriptional inhibitor, 1,10-phenanthroline. A range of half-lives from 6.6 +/- 0.67 minutes to over 100 minutes, relative to the stability of the 18S rRNA control, has been obtained for fifteen mRNAs. They include the pyruvate kinase and actin mRNAs, as well as 13 randomly picked mRNAs of unknown function. The mRNAs clearly fall into two populations when their lengths and half-lives are analysed; one population is considerably more stable than the other when mRNAs of similar length are compared. Also, within each population, there is an inverse relationship between mRNA length and half-life. These results suggest that mRNA length and at least one additional factor strongly influence mRNA stability in yeast.

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Selected References

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