Department of Surgery, The Methodist Hospital and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, 6565 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Cell Tissue Res. 2011 Nov;346(2):209-22. doi: 10.1007/s00441-011-1255-x. Epub 2011 Oct 11.
We have previously shown that VegT mRNA plays a structural (translation-independent) role in the organization of the cytokeratin cytoskeleton in Xenopus oocytes. The depletion of VegT mRNA causes the fragmentation of the cytokeratin network in the vegetal cortex of Xenopus oocytes. This effect can be rescued by the injection of synthetic VegT RNA into the oocyte. Here, we show that the structural function of VegT mRNA in Xenopus oocyte depends on its combinatory signals for the induction or facilitation and for the maintenance of the depolymerization vs. polymerization status of cytokeratin filaments and that the 300-nucleotide fragment of VegT RNA isolated from the context of the entire molecule induces and maintains the depolymerization of cytokeratin filaments when injected into Xenopus oocytes. A computational analysis of three homologous Xenopus VegT mRNAs has revealed the presence, within this 300-nucleotide region, of a conserved base-pairing (hairpin) configuration that might function in RNA/protein interactions.
我们之前已经表明，VegT mRNA 在 Xenopus 卵母细胞的细胞角蛋白细胞骨架组织中发挥结构（翻译独立）作用。VegT mRNA 的耗尽会导致 Xenopus 卵母细胞植物皮层中的细胞角蛋白网络碎片化。这种效应可以通过向卵母细胞注射合成的 VegT RNA 来挽救。在这里，我们表明 Xenopus 卵母细胞中 VegT mRNA 的结构功能取决于其诱导或促进以及维持细胞角蛋白丝解聚与聚合状态的组合信号，并且从整个分子背景中分离出的 300 个核苷酸片段的 VegT RNA 当注入 Xenopus 卵母细胞时，会诱导并维持细胞角蛋白丝的解聚。对三个同源的 Xenopus VegT mRNAs 的计算分析表明，在这个 300 个核苷酸区域内存在保守的碱基配对（发夹）结构，该结构可能在 RNA/蛋白质相互作用中发挥作用。
