Secondary structures and starvation-induced frameshifting

Authors: Atkinson, Jenny; Dodge, Matthew; Gallant, Jonathan

Source: Molecular Microbiology, Volume 26, Number 4, November 1997 , pp. 747-753(7)

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Abstract:

We have examined the effect of a downstream secondary structure (the stem-loop sequence found downstream on the MMTV gag-pro frameshift site) on frameshifting at a bacterial shifty site (U UUC AUA) that responds strongly to a isoleucine-tRNA limitation. Our findings are as follows: (i) the downstream stem-loop has little effect on frameshifting in growing, unstarved cells; (ii) the stem-loop increases the frameshifting effect of isoleucine-tRNA limitation about fourfold, and this synergism is maximal with a distance of 5-9 nucleotides between the `hungry' AUA codon and the stem-loop; and (iii) a stem-loop of different sequence at the same position has the same effect.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2958.1997.6101959.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Genetics, Box 357360, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7360, USA.

Publication date: 1997-11-01