Review Article Polyuridylation in Eukaryotes: A 3-End Modification Regulating RNA Life

Copyright © 2015 Paola Munoz-Tello et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In eukaryotes, mRNA polyadenylation is a well-known modification that is essential for many aspects of the protein-coding RNAs life cycle. However, modification of the 3 terminal nucleotide within various RNA molecules is a general and conserved process that broadly modulates RNA function in all kingdoms of life. Numerous types of modifications have been characterized, which are generally specific for a given type of RNA such as the CCA addition found in tRNAs. In recent years, the addition of nontemplated uridine nucleotides or uridylation has been shown to occur in various types of RNAmolecules and in various cellular compartments with significantly different outcomes. Indeed, uridylation is able to alter RNA half-life both in positive and in negative ways, highlighting the importance of the enzymes in charge of performing this modification.The present review aims at summarizing the current knowledge on the various processes leading to RNA 3-end uridylation and on their potential impacts in various diseases. 1