Yeast eIF4A enhances recruitment of mRNAs regardless of their structural complexity

Single-stranded regions modulate conformational dynamics and ATPase activity of eIF4A to optimize 5'-UTR unwinding

Eukaryotic translation initiation requires unwinding of secondary structures in the 5′-untranslated region of mRNA. The DEAD-box helicase eIF4A is thought to unwind structural elements in the 5′-UTR in conjunction with eIF4G and eIF4B. Both factors jointly stimulate eIF4A activities by modulation of eIF4A conformational cycling between open and closed states. Here we examine how RNA substrates modulate eIF4A activities. The RNAs fall into two classes: Short RNAs only partially stimulate the eIF4A ATPase activity, and closing is rate-limiting for the conformational cycle. By contrast, longer RNAs maximally stimulate ATP hydrolysis and promote closing of eIF4A. Strikingly, the rate constants of unwinding do not correlate with the length of a single-stranded region preceding a duplex, but reach a maximum for RNA with a single-stranded region of six nucleotides. We propose a model in which RNA substrates affect eIF4A activities by modulating the kinetic partitioning of eIF4A between futile, unproductive, and productive cycles.

YB-1, an abundant core mRNA-binding protein, has the capacity to form an RNA nucleoprotein filament: a structural analysis

The structural rearrangements accompanying mRNA during translation in mammalian cells remain poorly understood. Here, we discovered that YB-1 (YBX1), a major partner of mRNAs in the cytoplasm, forms a linear nucleoprotein filament with mRNA, when part of the YB-1 unstructured C-terminus has been truncated. YB-1 possesses a cold-shock domain (CSD), a remnant of bacterial cold shock proteins that have the ability to stimulate translation under the low temperatures through an RNA chaperone activity. The structure of the nucleoprotein filament indicates that the CSD of YB-1 preserved its chaperone activity also in eukaryotes and shows that mRNA is channeled between consecutive CSDs. The energy benefit needed for the formation of stable nucleoprotein filament relies on an electrostatic zipper mediated by positively charged amino acid residues in the YB-1 C-terminus. Thus, YB-1 displays a structural plasticity to unfold structured mRNAs into extended linear filaments. We anticipate that our findings will shed the light on the scanning of mRNAs by ribosomes during the initiation and elongation steps of mRNA translation.

Migration of Small Ribosomal Subunits on the 5' Untranslated Regions of Capped Messenger RNA

Several control mechanisms of eukaryotic gene expression target the initiation step of mRNA translation. The canonical translation initiation pathway begins with cap-dependent attachment of the small ribosomal subunit (SSU) to the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) followed by an energy-dependent, sequential ‘scanning’ of the 5′ untranslated regions (UTRs). Scanning through the 5′UTR requires the adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent RNA helicase eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 4A and its efficiency contributes to the specific rate of protein synthesis. Thus, understanding the molecular details of the scanning mechanism remains a priority task for the field. Here, we studied the effects of inhibiting ATP-dependent translation and eIF4A in cell-free translation and reconstituted initiation reactions programmed with capped mRNAs featuring different 5′UTRs. An aptamer that blocks eIF4A in an inactive state away from mRNA inhibited translation of capped mRNA with the moderately structured β-globin sequences in the 5′UTR but not that of an mRNA with a poly(A) sequence as the 5′UTR. By contrast, the nonhydrolysable ATP analogue β,γ-imidoadenosine 5′-triphosphate (AMP-PNP) inhibited translation irrespective of the 5′UTR sequence, suggesting that complexes that contain ATP-binding proteins in their ATP-bound form can obstruct and/or actively block progression of ribosome recruitment and/or scanning on mRNA. Further, using primer extension inhibition to locate SSUs on mRNA (‘toeprinting’), we identify an SSU complex which inhibits primer extension approximately eight nucleotides upstream from the usual toeprinting stop generated by SSUs positioned over the start codon. This ‘−8 nt toeprint’ was seen with mRNA 5′UTRs of different length, sequence and structure potential. Importantly, the ‘−8 nt toeprint’ was strongly stimulated by the presence of the cap on the mRNA, as well as the presence of eIFs 4F, 4A/4B and ATP, implying active scanning. We assembled cell-free translation reactions with capped mRNA featuring an extended 5′UTR and used cycloheximide to arrest elongating ribosomes at the start codon. Impeding scanning through the 5′UTR in this system with elevated magnesium and AMP-PNP (similar to the toeprinting conditions), we visualised assemblies consisting of several SSUs together with one full ribosome by electron microscopy, suggesting direct detection of scanning intermediates. Collectively, our data provide additional biochemical, molecular and physical evidence to underpin the scanning model of translation initiation in eukaryotes.

Yeast Ded1 promotes 48S translation pre-initiation complex assembly in an mRNA-specific and eIF4F-dependent manner

DEAD-box RNA helicase Ded1 is thought to resolve secondary structures in mRNA 5'-untranslated regions (5'-UTRs) that impede 48S preinitiation complex (PIC) formation at the initiation codon. We reconstituted Ded1 acceleration of 48S PIC assembly on native mRNAs in a pure system, and recapitulated increased Ded1-dependence of mRNAs that are Ded1-hyperdependent in vivo. Stem-loop (SL) structures in 5'-UTRs of native and synthetic mRNAs increased the Ded1 requirement to overcome their intrinsically low rates of 48S PIC recruitment. Ded1 acceleration of 48S assembly was greater in the presence of eIF4F, and domains mediating one or more Ded1 interactions with eIF4G or helicase eIF4A were required for efficient recruitment of all mRNAs; however, the relative importance of particular Ded1 and eIF4G domains were distinct for each mRNA. Our results account for the Ded1 hyper-dependence of mRNAs with structure-prone 5'-UTRs, and implicate an eIF4E·eIF4G·eIF4A·Ded1 complex in accelerating 48S PIC assembly on native mRNAs.