Functional significance of the 3’-UTR in the mRNA of the stress-inducible protein CHOP/Gadd153

Poster Presentation: no. P-H041How translation is regulated by the 3’-untranslated region (3’-UTR) of many messenger RNA is presently not fully understood. This issue is addressed in this study with regard to those mRNA species that are specifically expressed in stressed cells, as exemplified by the stress-inducible CHOP/Gadd153 mRNA. A human genomic fragment with DNA sequence corresponding to the entire 3’-UTR plus an additional 500bp immediately downstream from the polyadenylation site of CHOP/Gadd153 mRNA was cloned into the pEGFP-C1 plasmid. The transcription of this pEGFP-CHOP plasmid in HeLa cells produced two mRNA transcripts due to utilization of either the polyA-signal of the CHOP/Gadd153 gene or the pEGFP-C1 plasmid itself. The EGFP protein level in the pEGFP-CHOP transfected cells was several-fold lower than cells expressing the control (pEGFP-C1). The deletion of the first 171bp from the 5’-end of the ...postprin