Regulation of Gene Expression Through Inosine-containing UTRs
Heather Hundley
from: RNA Editing: Current Research and Future Trends (Edited by: Stefan Maas). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2013)
Abstract
Adenosine deaminases that act on RNA (ADARs) "edit" RNA by converting adenosines to inosines within double-stranded regions. Because adenosine and inosine have different base-pairing properties, editing alters RNA structure. Furthermore, as inosine is recognized as guanosine by the translation and splicing machinery, editing can alter the protein coding potential and splicing patterns of mRNA. In fact, the ability to diversify the proteome is an important function of ADARs. However, it is now clear that editing within coding regions is rare compared to editing of noncoding regions, such as introns and untranslated regions (UTRs). Although editing of UTRs is widespread, the function of these modifications is unclear. Here, we review the diverse fates that have been reported for inosine-containing RNAs and specifically discuss whether editing is required for these outcomes read more ...
