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Seryl-tRNA synthetase promotes translational readthrough by mRNA binding and involvement of the selenocysteine incorporation machinery.

Nucleic acids research · 2023 · Vol. 51 (19) · pp. 10768-10781

Abstract

Translational readthrough of UGA stop codons by selenocysteine-specific tRNA (tRNASec) enables the synthesis of selenoproteins. Seryl-tRNA synthetase (SerRS) charges tRNASec with serine, which is modified into selenocysteine and delivered to the ribosome by a designated elongation factor (eEFSec in eukaryotes). Here we found that components of the human selenocysteine incorporation machinery (SerRS, tRNASec, and eEFSec) also increased translational readthrough of non-selenocysteine genes, including VEGFA, to create C-terminally extended isoforms. SerRS recognizes target mRNAs through a stem-loop structure that resembles the variable loop of its cognate tRNAs. This function of SerRS depends on both its enzymatic activity and a vertebrate-specific domain. Through eCLIP-seq, we identified additional SerRS-interacting mRNAs as potential readthrough genes. Moreover, SerRS overexpression was sufficient to reverse premature termination caused by a pathogenic nonsense mutation. Our findings expand the repertoire of selenoprotein biosynthesis machinery and suggest an avenue for therapeutic targeting of nonsense mutations using endogenous factors.

Publication Types

["Journal Article", "Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural", "Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't"]

Keywords

[]

MeSH Terms

["Humans", "Codon, Nonsense", "Codon, Terminator", "Protein Biosynthesis", "RNA, Messenger", "Selenocysteine", "Selenoproteins", "Serine-tRNA Ligase"]

Funding

U24 HG009889 NHGRI NIH HHS (United States)
R01 HG004659 NHGRI NIH HHS (United States)
U41 HG009889 NHGRI NIH HHS (United States)
R35 GM139627 NIH HHS (United States)
R35 GM139627 NIGMS NIH HHS (United States)

Linked Datasets (1)

GSE230349 GSE via ncbi_elink
GEO

Seryl-tRNA synthetase promotes translational readthrough via mRNA binding by involving the selenocysteine incorporation machinery

Homo sapiens
12 data files
FileTypeSize
SLA_101.fastq.gz OTHER 1.7 GB
SLA_101.fastq.gz OTHER 1.7 GB
SLA_102.fastq.gz OTHER 1.5 GB
SLA_102.fastq.gz OTHER 1.5 GB
SLA_89.fastq.gz OTHER 1.5 GB
SLA_89.fastq.gz OTHER 1.5 GB
SLA_95.fastq.gz OTHER 1.9 GB
SLA_95.fastq.gz OTHER 1.9 GB
SLA_97.fastq.gz OTHER 1.7 GB
SLA_97.fastq.gz OTHER 1.7 GB
SLA_99.fastq.gz OTHER 1.8 GB
SLA_99.fastq.gz OTHER 1.8 GB

Potentially Related Datasets (2)

These accessions were text-mined from the PMC full text. They may be referenced for comparison, cited from other studies, or otherwise mentioned without being primary data for this paper.

Seryl-tRNA synthetase promotes translational readthrough via mRNA binding by involving the selenocysteine incorporation machinery

Analysis Pipelines (1)

Ribo-seq geo_data_processing GSE230349