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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Polysome Fractionation and Analysis of Mammalian Translatomes on a Genome-wide Scale
Published on: May 17, 2014
Community effects in regulation of translation
Paul M Macdonald1,2, Matt Kanke1,2, Andrew Kenny1,2
1Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States.
Abstract:
Certain forms of translational regulation, and translation itself, rely on long-range interactions between proteins bound to the different ends of mRNAs. A widespread assumption is that such interactions occur only in cis, between the two ends of a single transcript. However, certain translational regulatory defects of the Drosophila oskar (osk) mRNA can be rescued in trans. We proposed that inter-transcript interactions, promoted by assembly of the mRNAs in particles, allow regulatory elements to act in trans. Here we confirm predictions of that model and show that disruption of PTB-dependent particle assembly inhibits rescue in trans. Communication between transcripts is not limited to different osk mRNAs, as regulation imposed by cis-acting elements embedded in the osk mRNA spreads to gurken mRNA. We conclude that community effects exist in translational regulation.
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