ABOVE: A synthetic SINEUP (blue) and its target mRNA (red) colocalize in the cytoplasm as part of a process that appears to help upregulate that mRNA's translation.
NAOKO TOKI
The paper
N. Toki et al., “SINEUP long non-coding RNA acts via PTBP1 and HNRNPK to promote translational initiation assemblies,” Nucleic Acids Res, 48:11626–44, 2020.
A few years ago, Piero Carninci of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan and colleagues discovered a novel type of RNA. These long, noncoding RNAs contain repetitive sequences called short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs), and they upregulate the translation of specific mRNAs with complementary base sequences. Carninci and colleagues called the RNAs SINEUPs.
Curious about how the upregulation works, the team recently delved into the process using a synthetic SINEUP that targets mRNA coding for green fluorescent protein (GFP). The researchers used plasmids to transfect genes for the synthetic SINEUP and for GFP mRNA into ...
