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. 1994 Mar;14(3):1893–1900. doi: 10.1128/mcb.14.3.1893

The deadenylation conferred by the 3' untranslated region of a developmentally controlled mRNA in Xenopus embryos is switched to polyadenylation by deletion of a short sequence element.

P Bouvet 1, F Omilli 1, Y Arlot-Bonnemains 1, V Legagneux 1, C Roghi 1, T Bassez 1, H B Osborne 1
PMCID: PMC358547  PMID: 8114721

Abstract

The maternal Xenopus Eg mRNAs are adenylated and translated in the mature oocyte and then, after fertilization, are deadenylated and released from polysomes. Therefore, after fertilization, a change occurs in the cellular mechanisms that control mRNA adenylation. In the study reported here, we show that the 3' untranslated region of Eg2 mRNA contains a cis-acting element that is required for the deadenylation of chimeric RNAs after fertilization. This cis-acting element is contained within a single 17-nucleotide portion of the Eg2 mRNA. Disruption of this deadenylation element allows adenylation of the chimeric transcripts in the embryo. Therefore, this cis-acting element is part of the sequence information required for the developmental switch from adenylation to deadenylation of the maternal Eg2 mRNA in Xenopus embryos.

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