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Updated: Sep 28, 2025

Discrimintion and Mapping of the Primary and Processed Transcripts in Maize Mitochondrion Using a Circular RT-PCR-based Strategy
Published on: July 29, 2019
Variation in upstream open reading frames contributes to allelic diversity in maize protein abundance
Joseph L Gage1,2, Sujina Mali3, Fionn McLoughlin3
1Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
None:
SignificanceProteins are the machinery which execute essential cellular functions. However, measuring their abundance within an organism can be difficult and resource-intensive. Cells use a variety of mechanisms to control protein synthesis from mRNA, including short open reading frames (uORFs) that lie upstream of the main coding sequence. Ribosomes can preferentially translate uORFs instead of the main coding sequence, leading to reduced translation of the main protein. In this study, we show that uORF sequence variation between individuals can lead to different rates of protein translation and thus variable protein abundances. We also demonstrate that natural variation in uORFs occurs frequently and can be linked to whole-plant phenotypes, indicating that uORF sequence variation likely contributes to plant adaptation.
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