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. 2011 May;8(2):163-6.
doi: 10.1513/pats.201007-054MS.

Toward a systematic understanding of mRNA 3' untranslated regions

Wenxue Zhao  1 , Denitza Blagev, Joshua L Pollack, David J Erle
Affiliations

Toward a systematic understanding of mRNA 3' untranslated regions

Wenxue Zhao et al. Proc Am Thorac Soc. 2011 May.

Abstract

Messenger RNAs (mRNAs) contain prominent untranslated regions (UTRs) that are increasingly recognized to play roles in mRNA processing, transport, stability, and translation. 3' UTRs are believed to harbor recognition sites for a diverse set of RNA-binding proteins that regulate gene expression as well as most active microRNA target sites. Although the roles of 3' UTRs in the normal and diseased lung have not yet been studied extensively, available evidence suggests important roles for 3' UTRs in lung development, inflammation, asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, and cancer. Systematic, genome-wide approaches are beginning to catalog functional elements within 3' UTRs and identify the proteins and microRNAs that interact with these elements. Application of new data sets and experimental approaches should provide powerful insights into how 3' UTR-mediated regulatory events contribute to disease and may inspire novel therapeutic approaches.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
3′ Untranslated regions (UTRs) are prominent features of human messenger RNAs (mRNAs). We analyzed all RefSeq mRNA sequences available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/RefSeq/, accessed on July 27, 2010) and determined lengths of (A) the 5′ UTR, (B) the coding region, and (C) the 3′ UTR for the 15,295 human RefSeq mRNA sequences that included annotations indicating positions of start and stop codons and one or more polyadenylation sites. For 5,672 of these transcripts, two or more polyadenylation sites were annotated and 3′ UTR lengths were calculated for each of these variants. Mean lengths were 243 nucleotides (nt) for the 5′ UTR, 1,766 nt for the coding region, and 1,278 nt for the 3′ UTR.
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