Squires Jeffrey E, Berry Marla J
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA.
IUBMB Life. 2008 Apr;60(4):232-5. doi: 10.1002/iub.38.
Selenium is an essential micronutrient that has been linked to various aspects of human health. Selenium exerts its biological activity through the incorporation of the amino acid, selenocysteine (Sec), into a unique class of proteins termed selenoproteins. Sec incorporation occurs cotranslationally at UGA codons in archaea, prokaryotes, and eukaryotes. UGA codons specify Sec coding rather than termination by the presence of specific secondary structures in mRNAs termed selenocysteine insertion (SECIS) elements, and trans-acting factors that associate with SECIS elements. Herein, we discuss the various proteins known to function in eukaryotic selenoprotein biosynthesis, including several players whose roles have only been elucidated very recently.
硒是一种必需的微量营养素，与人类健康的各个方面都有关联。硒通过将氨基酸硒代半胱氨酸（Sec）掺入一类独特的蛋白质（即硒蛋白）中来发挥其生物活性。在古细菌、原核生物和真核生物中，Sec的掺入是在UGA密码子处共翻译发生的。UGA密码子通过被称为硒代半胱氨酸插入（SECIS）元件的特定mRNA二级结构以及与SECIS元件相关的反式作用因子的存在来指定Sec编码而非终止。在此，我们讨论了已知在真核生物硒蛋白生物合成中发挥作用的各种蛋白质，包括一些其作用直到最近才被阐明的蛋白质。
