Figure 1. Major mRNA metabolism steps can be hijacked in cancer.

These are divided into two categories: those that can impact on the physical nature of the message and thus its content (left) and those that amplify of the message e.g. generate more protein per transcript (right). The m⁷G cap is represented as black balls on the 5′ end of the transcript, SF mutation indicated splice factor mutation and PAS, polyadenylation signal (see text). Capping section, black lines represent transcripts. Splicing and Cleavage and Polyadenylation section, coloured boxes represent exons. Right Side. Narrow rectangles in the retention/export and translation section represent USER codes in the 3′ or 5′ UTRs, respectively, that can sensitize RNAs to the levels of regulation shown. There are other processing steps than can be regulated and there are many other regulators of each of the steps shown, but for brevity only a few are highlighted.