Messenger RNA 3' End Formation in Plants

 

The major focus of this laboratory over the years has been the study of RNA polyadenylation in plants. Early work centered on the structure of plant polyadenylation signals. These studies led to a model for the plant polyadenylation signal that has been corroborated by more recent bioinformatic analyses, and established a foundation for biochemical and genetic studies that continue to this day.

A digression from these ongoing biochemical studies involved a characterization of a chloroplast-localized poly(A) polymerase. This area of study is no longer being actively pursued in the laboratory.

At the present, research efforts involve a combined biochemical, molecular, and genetic characterization of the nuclear polyadenylation apparatus in plants. The long-term goals of these efforts are to characterize the means by which mRNAs are polyadenylated in plants, and to understand the interplay between cellular signaling and mRNA 3' end formation.

Polyadenylation-related publications from this laboratory (sorted in chronological order)

Hunt AG, Chu NM, Odell JT, Nagy F, Chua N-H. 1987. Plant cells do not properly recognize animal gene polyadenylation signals. Plant Mol. Biol. 8: 23-35

Hunt AG. 1988. Identification and characterization of cryptic polyadenylation sites in the 3' region of a pea ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit gene. DNA 7: 329-336.

Hunt AG, MacDonald M. 1989. Deletion analysis of the polyadenylation signal of a pea ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit gene. Plant Mol. Biol. 13: 125-138.

Mogen B, Graybosch R, MacDonald M, Hunt AG. 1990. Upstream sequences other than AAUAAA are required for efficient mRNA 3' end formation in plants. Plant Cell 2: 1261-1272.

MacDonald MH, Mogen B, Hunt AG. 1991. Characterization of the polyadenylation signal of the T-DNA-encoded octopine synthase gene. Nuc. Acids Res. 19: 5575-5581.

Hunt AG, Mogen BD, Chu NM, Chua N-H 1991. The SV40 small t intron is accurately and efficiently spliced in tobacco cells. Plant Mol. Biol. 16: 375-380.

Yang J, Hunt AG. 1992.. Purification and characterization of a 70 kD polyadenylate-binding protein from pea (Pisum sativum). Plant Physiol. 98: 1115-1120.

Mogen BD, MacDonald MH, Leggewie G, Hunt AG. 1992.. Several distinct types of sequence elements are required for efficient mRNA 3' end formation in a pea rbcS gene. Mol. Cell. Biol. 12: 5406-5414.

Yang J, Hunt AG. 1994. Immunological characterization of plant polyadenylate-binding proteins. Plant Sci. 99: 161-170.

Hunt AG. 1994 Messenger RNA 3' end formation in plants. Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 45: 47-60.

Li Q, Hunt AG. 1995. A near upstream element in a plant polyadenylation signal consists of more than six bases. Plant Mol. Biol. 28: 927-934.

Das Gupta J, Li Q, Thomson AB, Hunt AG. 1995. Characterization of a novel plant polyadenylate polymerase. Plant Sci.110: 215-226.

Li Q, Das Gupta J, Hunt AG. 1996. A plant poly(A) polymerase requires a novel RNA binding protein for activity. Journal of Biological Chemistry 271: 19831-19835.

LiQ, Hunt AG. 1997. The polyadenylation of RNA in plants. Plant Physiology 115: 321-325.

Li Q, Das Gupta J, Hunt AG. 1998. Polynucleotide phosphorylase is a component of a novel plant poly(A) polymerase. Journal of Biological Chemistry 273: 17539-17543.

Das Gupta J, Li Q, Thomson AB, Hunt AG. 1998. Characterization of cDNAs encoding a novel plant poly(A) polymerase. Plant Molecular Biology 37: 729-734.

Hunt AG, Meeks LR, Forbes KP, Das Gupta, Mogen BD. 2000. Nuclear and chloroplast poly(A) polymerases from plants share a novel biochemical property. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 272: 174–181.

Dattaroy T, Hunt AG. 2002. Polyadenylation of RNAs associated with a nuclear phosphorolytic nuclease complex from plants. Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology 11: 21-25.

Elliott BJ, Dattaroy T, Meeks-Midkiff LR, Forbes KP, Hunt AG. 2003. An interaction between an Arabidopsis poly(A) polymerase and a homologue of the 100 kDa subunit of CPSF. Plant Mol. Biol. 51:373-84

Addepalli B, Meeks LR, Forbes KP, Hunt AG. 2004. Novel alternative splicing of mRNAs encoding poly(A) polymerases in Arabidopsis. Biochimica Biophysica Acta 1679: 117-128.

Forbes KP, Addepalli B, Hunt AG. 2006. An Arabidopsis Fip1 homologue interacts with RNA and provides conceptual links with a number of other polyadenylation factor subunits. J. Biol. Chem. 281: 176-186.

Delaney KJ, Xu R, Zhang J, Yun K-Y, Li QQ, Falcone DF, Hunt AG. 2006. Calmodulin interacts with and regulates the RNA-binding activity of an Arabidopsis polyadenylation factor subunit. Plant Physiol. 140: 1507-1521.

Addepalli B, Hunt AG. 2007. A novel endonuclease activity associated with the Arabidopsis ortholog of the 30 kD subunit of cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor. Nucleic Acids Research, in press.

The Plant Poly(A) Signal Database - an unpublished graphical representation of the base composition near known plant polyadenylation sites

Lab people - past and present

Present members of the poly(A) group:

Collaborators:

Alumni:

  • Robert Graybosch
  • Brad Mogen
  • Jianjun Yang
  • Peggy MacDonald
  • Qingshun (Quinn) Li
  • A. Brian Thomson
  • Jaydip Das Gupta
  • Barbara Elliott
  • Santanu Dasgupta
  • Sankar Das
  • Tomal Dattaroy
  • Amanda Marion
  • Lisa Meeks
  • Kevin Forbes
  • Kim Delaney

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