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Bearing of some recent results on the mechanisms of polarity and messenger RNA stability

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Summary

The amount or stability of a sequence of messenger RNA can be increased or decreased by a number of events indifferent to that sequence. Some recently reported instances from in vitro and in vivo are reviewed, including: 1) polar effects and stabilization of mRNA after translocation blockage; 2) the stabilization and resistance to polar effects of trp transcripts initiated at a λ promoter in λ-trp DNA; and 3) polarity in gal transcripts, and mRNA stability, in a DNA-coupled system. The results strengthen the suggestion that events at or near the 5′-proximal end of an mRNA sequence can determine the fate of distal sections.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

    Fumio Imamoto

  2. Department of Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

    David Schlessinger

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  1. Fumio Imamoto
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  2. David Schlessinger
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Communicated by E. Bautz

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Imamoto, F., Schlessinger, D. Bearing of some recent results on the mechanisms of polarity and messenger RNA stability. Molec. Gen. Genet. 135, 29–38 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00433898

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00433898

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