Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 5, 2026

Analysis of Cap-binding Proteins in Human Cells Exposed to Physiological Oxygen Conditions
Published on: December 28, 2016
A new paradigm for translational control: inhibition via 5'-3' mRNA tethering by Bicoid and the eIF4E cognate 4EHP
Park F Cho1, Francis Poulin, Yoon Andrew Cho-Park
1Department of Biochemistry, McGill Cancer Center, McGill University, 3655 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montréal, Québec H3G 1Y6, Canada.
Abstract:
Translational control is a key genetic regulatory mechanism implicated in regulation of cell and organismal growth and early embryonic development. Initiation at the mRNA 5' cap structure recognition step is frequently targeted by translational control mechanisms. In the Drosophila embryo, cap-dependent translation of the uniformly distributed caudal (cad) mRNA is inhibited in the anterior by Bicoid (Bcd) to create an asymmetric distribution of Cad protein. Here, we show that d4EHP, an eIF4E-related cap binding protein, specifically interacts with Bcd to suppress cad translation. Translational inhibition depends on the Bcd binding region (BBR) present in the cad 3' untranslated region. Thus, simultaneous interactions of d4EHP with the cap structure and of Bcd with BBR renders cad mRNA translationally inactive. This example of cap-dependent translational control that is not mediated by canonical eIF4E defines a new paradigm for translational inhibition involving tethering of the mRNA 5' and 3' ends.
Related Concept Videos
Initiation of Translation
First, the initiator tRNA must be selected from the pool of elongator tRNAs by eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2). The initiator tRNA (Met-tRNAi) has conserved sequence elements including modified bases at...
Regulation of Expression Occurs at Multiple Steps
Transcription results in the generation of precursor (pre-mRNA) that consists of both exons and introns, which needs further processing before being translated to a...
Eukaryotic Transcription Inhibitors
Eukaryotic transcription inhibitors usually contain two distinct domains, a...
Leaky Scanning
Regulation of Expression at Multiple Steps
Translational Regulation

